Farewell, Spark AR

The End of an Era

After almost eight years, Meta is shutting down its “Spark” AR platform. While the name might not ring a bell for most people, it’s very likely that you came across one of the many effects and filters on Instagram before. Meta’s augmented reality platform was the backbone of these effects, and enabled hundreds of thousands of creators to build and release customized AR experiences.

I began exploring Spark AR in 2018, unaware of how quickly it would shape my professional journey. Within a year, as part of Enlive Studio, I started collaborating with international clients, creating augmented marketing experiences for brands like Red Bull and WWF, reaching audiences worldwide. Alongside commercial projects, I also released creations like the “Super 8” filter, which generated over 100 million impressions on Instagram. When I started my company Hypersquare Design in 2021, augmented marketing products became an organic part of my offerings. It was a wild ride, and like for many others in the community, I was somewhat surprised when Meta announced that they would pull the plug.

One of the most exciting aspects of such frameworks is also one of their biggest predicaments — they are highly dynamic and constantly change. It’s a unique environment that required adjustment but also pushed me to improve various skills across areas like 3D modelling, creating highly optimized assets, and programming complex interaction mechanics. An approach that extends beyond any single platform.

So, what now?

A lot of creators built businesses on top of Meta’s framework, and this abrupt pivot caught many off-guard. I want to encourage every creator who might feel lost in this period of change to explore the broad and ever-growing landscape of AR frameworks. Besides that, there are also AR-adjacent opportunities that might be interesting to explore.

The closest option to continue creating social media AR experiences would be one of the competitor platforms, Lens Studio for Snapchat, and TikTok’s Effect House. While each framework offers distinct features and follows different workflows, they share basic characteristics, and it’s absolutely possible to recreate similar effects throughout all of them. In some cases, though, it might be even better to opt for options that avoid social network policies altogether.

One of these is Three.js, a cross-browser JavaScript library enabling immersive 3D experiences. It’s not an AR platform out of the box, and it involves programming (or ChatGPT prompting) skills, but there’s great potential for marketing applications targeted at a similar client base. Coming from an industrial design background, I appreciate simplified tools that help me avoid complex programming steps, but it’s also highly rewarding to build something from scratch. Although, I only used Three.js for web 3D projects so far, libraries like Mind AR enable popular features like face or image tracking. Find a list of alternative AR platforms and other resources at the bottom of this article.

I feel fortunate for the learnings, new opportunities, and connections I’ve made during this exceptional chapter of my life. A big thanks to everybody who was part of the journey so far, and I hope that this change also marks new and fruitful beginnings for many members of the community.

Spark AR alternatives:

Snap AR

TikTok Effect House

Niantic 8thWall (web AR)

AR.js (web AR)

MindAR (web AR library)

Web 3D libraries:

Three.js

Babylon.js

Three.js project demos:

3D Me on this website

Hypersquare Virtual Space Ride