Meta announced on the Facebook community yesterday that it will shut down all third-party tools and content of Meta Spark. This means that in the future we will not be able to use unofficial filters and special effects in Meta's social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. As soon as the statement came out, it was flooded with scolds in the community, criticizing Meta as a self-destruction. The statement stated that Meta Spark will shut down on January 14, 2025, and asked creators to back up their creations to a third-party website before then.

The Meta Spark creator tools platform will all be shut down

Meta officials stated that after evaluation, they decided to close the Meta Spark platform, which means that the platform’s creator tools, community, and created special effects will be deleted. Starting from January 14, 2025, creators will no longer be able to log in to Meta Spark Studio, Meta Spark Player, and Meta Spark Hub. At the same time, third-party effects will no longer exist on Meta platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. Users will no longer see third-party AR effects when shooting limited-time videos.

If the user is already using effects in existing flash feeds or reels, that content will not be affected. For creators or businesses that have published effects to Instagram, Facebook, or Messenger, Meta recommends downloading and saving project files, assets, and demo videos before January 14, 2025. AR creators who wish to continue displaying AR effects created on Meta Spark are recommended to create a portfolio on an external website before January 14th.

Meta launched Meta Spark in 2017, when augmented reality experiences were still relatively unknown to most consumers. Over the past seven years, Meta has lowered the barriers to entry for AR technology. Perhaps consumers do not realize that they are using AR when using Instagram special effects, but all this is in line with the definition of AR as overlaying digital content on real environments and objects.

So we can say that this process of abstracting the experience confirms that AR has been adopted on a large scale. AR Effects has been used billions of times in these seven years by hundreds of millions of Meta users on the platform. This is an example of consumers using this technology without knowing it, but successfully achieving mass adoption. It is worth pondering what blockchain technology still lacks before mass adoption?

(What is chain abstraction? It improves user experience more comprehensively than account abstraction)

Is it suicidal for Meta to cut off the special effects function?

As soon as this announcement came out, some people ridiculed Meta for taking away the most useful part of itself, which is tantamount to self-destruction. Some people also said that there is another dying skill for special effects creators, and said that so many brands invest resources in developing special effects, and Meta just takes it away and closes the function for Meta, instead of continuing to develop and improve. Puzzled by the choice of tools.

Looking at the comments below, many creators expressed that they felt betrayed. They participated in the community so seriously, but faced the closure of the platform for unknown reasons. They believed that Meta needed to give an explanation.

After Meta developed AR special effects, the feature has spread to other social software. Although it is possible to use other social software special effects or even photo software filters without Meta, it may be difficult for Meta’s billions of users to find substitutes in this regard.

Creator Amy Bell-Van Der Walt said: "I already create on Snapchat and TikTok, but most of my clients want Instagram." and described "I felt like I was punched in the gut." ” Turkish creator Cansu Türkmen also agreed, saying that Turkish customers also particularly want Instagram. Some users also commented on the special effects platform, saying: "I love Snapchat and I think Lens Studio is the best, but unfortunately most brands want the effects of IG."

At this point, all of you who are heavy addicts of AR special effects (you may not realize it) may have to start looking for alternatives, or accept that we will have a boring day without AR special effects, and continue to pray that this day will not come.

This article Meta announces the removal of the Spark creator tool platform! Homemade IG filters will no longer be available from next year first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.