According to The Verge, Facebook just opened up its augmented reality Spark AR platform in the form of a public beta, allowing anyone to build their own Instagram face filter.
Facebook revealed the policy shift at its annual developer conference F8 in late April 2019, along with other big announcements. Before today's change, the social media giant would only allow approved creators to submit their face filters to Instagram.
Still, the company claimed that more than one billion users on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Portal have tried AR effects that originated from the growing Spark AR platform.
As part of the latest change, Instagram also added an Effect Gallery tab on artists' profiles for them to better demonstrate their work to the public.
For those who wish to create face filters, they can download the Spark AR Studio for Windows and macOS. For the most part, Spark AR Studio makes creating filters a relatively painless experience for most people because it has a simplified UI and control scheme.
However, Facebook's rival Snap Inc. launched a similar service called Lens Studio in 2018 that allows developers to build augmented reality experiences for Snapchat.
Snapchat later introduced Lens Explorer for users to discover more than 100,000 lenses.
Source: The Verge
