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After seven years pushing its augmented reality capabilities, Meta is planning to close its augmented reality studio Spark AR.
From 14 January 2025, all AR effects on Instagram that are built by third parties — that’s brands, agencies and independent creators — will become completely inaccessible. The move will wipe out years of work, not to mention income, for creators who previously partnered with fashion brands to create AR filters for Instagram. This means that the types of AR campaigns that brought Instagram users pearl-encrusted Gucci headdresses, Dior sunglasses and Prada memes will be left in the past.
The news was met with various emotions from Spark’s community of 600,000 creators — few of them positive.
“I lost a project over this, because who’s interested in a dying platform?” says creator Adrian Steckeweh, who has worked with Nike, Adidas and Bimba Y Lola to generate such content. Johanna Jaskowska — who created the viral ‘Beauty 3000’ filter that coats your face in an ethereal, glossy sheen — has diversified away from AR, but says “a part of my income will die”, adding that Spark accounted for 80 per cent of her AR commissions.
For others, the closure represents a potentially larger financial setback. “Probably 90 per cent of my revenue over the past five years has come from Instagram filters,” says artist Doddz, who founded a commercial AR studio in 2019 and has worked with brands including Dior and Tommy Hilfiger. Similarly, digital makeup creator Ines Alpha says most (“if not all”) of her brand commissions were for Spark projects.
Digital artist Sarah Mayer points out that Meta deleting its library of third-party AR materials will also affect passive income for a large number of creators. “The textures, shades and other materials that brands and other creators were buying — that’s all gone,” she says.
The about-face on this metaverse tech might come as a surprise for the company that rebranded itself to ‘Meta’ just three years ago. At the time, CEO Mark Zuckerberg had been pushing all things metaverse, AR and virtual reality. In January 2020, he said that he expected the decade to come with “breakthrough augmented reality glasses that will redefine our relationship with technology”; later that year, he called AR glasses a “Holy Grail” item. Since then, Meta’s reality labs division — which leads AR, VR and metaverse projects — has had to cut spending as the company sets its sights on generative artificial intelligence.
In a statement, a Meta spokesperson said: “In an effort to prioritise resources to innovate products that can help advertisers see better performance, such as generative AI, we have discontinued AR ads that connect to Instant Experiences across Facebook and Instagram and will also be removing the ability to drive traffic to organic AR effects early next year. We remain committed to our long-term investments to provide greater opportunities for both consumers and businesses.”
In a blog post sharing the news, Meta stated that: “This decision is part of our larger efforts to prioritise the products we believe will best serve the future needs of our consumers and business customers alike.”
The AR reset
So what’s next? Many creators are looking to other platforms.
Doddz, Alpha and Mayer all started pitching more non-Spark jobs in recent months, joining other creators in saying they’ve witnessed a slow decline of the platform.
Snapchat, considered a leader in AR effects, has offered a welcome port of call. “I’ve been working in Spark for years, and we’ve seen the team get smaller; there’s been more bugs, support dropping off,” says Leanne Elliott-Young, co-founder and CEO of the Institute of Digital Fashion, which has worked on AR clothing with Chet Lo and Roksanda, partnered with cult store Machine-A on an immersive virtual boutique and digitally dressed celebrities on the red carpets of both the 2023 Academy Awards and the 2021 and 2022 BFC awards. “Whereas on [Snap’s AR] Lens Studio, their software and tracking is getting better and better.”
While Snapchat might have superior technology, creators say Lens Studio is harder to use than Spark, meaning many can’t simply migrate across without upskilling. Some also say they’re unsure of the return they would see from that investment.
Of the three major social platforms that offer AR — Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok — Instagram has long been fashion’s preferred marketing tool. Leading luxury brands spent an estimated 83 per cent of their social media marketing budget on Instagram in 2021, according to Launchmetrics.
Brands are likely to have increased investment in other platforms since 2021, but anecdotally, Instagram remains fashion’s social network of choice, especially for augmented reality. “Instagram was very often the only platform requested for AR,” Mayer says.
Steckeweh explains that Spark showcases makeup more realistically than the AR on TikTok and Snapchat, and suggests that Instagram has integrated shopping into its user experience more effectively than other platforms. It’s also where the audience is. Instagram has overtaken Google as the primary method for shoppers to engage with fashion online, according to last year’s Retail X Global Fashion report.
AR still has legs
Despite Meta pulling out of mobile AR, consumer demand for the technology remains strong. Three-quarters of shoppers are interested in using AR, according to a report from Ipsos and Snapchat, while spending on physical goods via AR experiences is forecast to quadruple over the next three years, according to AR research firm Artillery Intelligence.
The question is whether brands should shift mobile AR budgets to Snapchat and TikTok, or invest in other AR experiences on their own apps and websites, or on AR-specific apps, such as Zero10, Wanna or DressX. Outside of mobile, brands and retailers have increasingly been commissioning AR mirrors, both to enhance the retail experience and as a highly engaging form of street advertising. Mugler, Coach and Chanel have all used the tech in store, while Elliott-Young’s Institute of Digital Fashion recently delivered a new AR experience for the smart mirrors at 4,320 H&M stores. “We’re definitely seeing more demand from retailers,” says Elliott-Young. Either way, the tech isn’t going anywhere fast. “Brands now see AR as part of the package when they deliver a collection,” she adds.
A Modern Retail survey of 388 brands and retailers found that, besides filters, virtual try-ons and real-world overlays are the most popular uses of AR. Luxury brands from Hermès and Valentino to Burberry and Balenciaga have used the technology on Instagram and other platforms to allow potential customers to trial products using their mobile phones, while a Dior AR try-on experience built by software company Perfect Corp led to a 36 per cent increase in purchase intent. This summer, Loewe’s partnership with activewear company On included AR virtual try-on of the shoe styles directly from the Spanish house’s website, before they became available. In just 10 days, there were almost 500,000 try-ons, according to tech partner Wanna.
Among the tech players still developing AR effects, many feel there is a long runway when it comes to progress, making Spark AR’s pivot an abrupt change. For example, while digital artist Mayer says sophisticated face-tracking capabilities mean AR makeup and glasses look realistic, digital fashion influencer Daniella Loftus says body tracking (which tracks the movements of a person’s body) is not so up to speed, establishing digital clothing as a work in progress.
When the tech is convincing enough for widespread adoption, the effects — both financial and environmental — could be huge. Two-thirds of customers who use virtual try-ons at their current quality are less likely to return products, according to the Ipsos x Snapchat report. AR could also help to mitigate overproduction. “My hope is that clothing could be produced on demand after a virtual try-on,” says Mayer.
While Meta has been mostly mum, it hasn’t totally signed off on mixed reality, including AR; though Spark AR is dead, a new platform could bring AR back. The next major frontier is smart eyewear. As part of its Spark statement, Meta said it is “committed to our long-term investments in new computing platforms that will bring us beyond today’s 2D experiences on mobile… We’re also shifting resources to the next generation of experiences, across new form factors like glasses.”
All eyes will be on Zuckerberg later this month, as the Meta Connect event (25 and 26 September) is likely to bring an update to the company’s breakout success Meta Ray-Ban frames, which so far have focused on AI effects over AR. Meta is reportedly planning to release AR glasses next year, according to The Information.
Creators will wait and see. Some point out that there are privacy concerns to work out around face tracking, which poses potential challenges for beauty and eyewear brands, but agree that smart glasses present a whole stream of opportunities for digital fashion. Already, Meta’s smart glasses can offer style advice on outfit selfies, and it’s only a matter of time until the glasses can, for example, identify shoppable items based on items the wearer is looking at, similar to Google and Pinterest. An added layer of AR try-on would make sense.
For now, whether Meta will open up AR development for wearable tech the same way it did for mobile remains to be seen.
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