At Facebook Connect, Facebook announced that Messenger and Portal will soon support third-party augmented reality (AR) effects. Starting in 2021, users will be able to try on AR effects made with Spark AR.
Facebook Expands Support for AR Effects
It’s no secret that AR effects have been surging in popularity on social media. Facebook rolled out support for third-party AR effects on Instagram last year, allowing people to create their own AR effects and use them in their Stories. Since then, all kinds of creative AR effects have been popping up all over Instagram.
Facebook will now carry over support for third-party effects to Messenger and Portal as soon as next year. Even though Messenger and Portal already have AR effects, the library is limited to those created by the Facebook team.
Anyone who wants to make custom AR effects for Messenger or Portal will soon get the chance to do so. This means that Spark AR creators will finally be able to use their designs on Messenger and Portal.
If you don’t know already, Spark AR is the Facebook-owned design studio for creating AR effects. The beginner-friendly tool has garnered over 400,000 users, and spurred a growing total of over 1.2 million AR effects for Instagram and Facebook.
At the keynote event, Facebook also noted that it’s teaming up with The New York Times to create informative AR effects on Instagram. The news outlet plans on combining news stories and engaging AR effects to help people visualize current events. The New York Times has already begun experimenting with AR effects, as shown in its Story depicting air pollution.
Messenger and Portal Will Soon Get More Exciting
Now that Facebook is allowing third-party AR effects on Messenger and Portal, you’ll get to use AR effects while interacting with friends and family. And if third-party AR effects come to Facebook Messenger Rooms as well, conversations will get even more interesting.
About The Author
