In 2017, Meta launched the Spark platform, which allowed creators to easily build and share AR experiences at scale. The AR experiences that were created could be published on Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, reaching billions of people worldwide. To everyone"s surprise, Meta today announced its decision to shut down the Spark platform.
Third-party tools and content on Spark will no longer be available starting January 14, 2025. This includes all the existing AR effects built by brands and creators around the world. However, AR effects created by the Meta team will continue to be available across Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. Creators should download and save all their AR effect files, assets, demo videos, and other files before Meta Spark shuts down on January 14, 2025.
In the announcement blog post, Meta mentioned that the decision to shut down Spark is part of their larger efforts to prioritize the products they believe will best serve the future needs of their consumers and business customers alike. Meta emphasized that they made this decision after thorough consideration.
It is important to note that Meta remains committed to its long-term investments in new computing platforms and is shifting resources to the next generation of experiences across new form factors like glasses.
The Meta Spark team wrote the following regarding the Spark platform:
"We are deeply grateful to the community of creators, businesses, and other key stakeholders who have been part of the Meta Spark journey. When we first launched this platform seven years ago, experiences infused with augmented reality were new to most consumers. Since then, the imagination, innovation, and creativity of our AR creator community has helped extend the reach of AR to hundreds of millions of people across Meta’s platforms."
Meta specifically mentioned on their FAQ page that they don’t offer alternative tools to build, publish, or manage AR effects across Meta platforms. In fact, they categorically mentioned that they do not anticipate creating any custom AR content for mobile-first platforms like Facebook and Instagram in the future.
It"s a bittersweet farewell to AR effects as we know them, but the dawn of a new, more immersive AR era is on the horizon.