From 14 January 2025, the social media giant’s collection of third-party AR tools and content will no longer be available

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Meta has announced the closure of its Spark AR Studio platform.

From 14 January 2025, Spark, its collection of third-party AR tools and content, will no longer be available.

Spark enables users to build AR effects (such as filters, masks, and 3D special effects) to be used across Meta-owned apps. It’s been running for seven years and in 2020 it had 400,000 creators making content, predominantly for Facebook and Instagram.

The focus for Meta has since shifted to launching its own AR glasses and more sophisticated AR experiences, beyond what Spark offers.

Meta has released a statement explaining its decision. It said:

Following a thorough assessment, we have made the decision to shut down Meta Spark’s platform of third party tools and content, effective Tuesday, January 14, 2025.

This means that the Augmented Reality (AR) effects built by third parties – including brands and our wider community of AR Creators – will no longer be available beginning on this date. AR Effects owned by Meta will continue to be available to our users across our Family of Apps.

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.

This decision is part of our larger efforts to prioritize the products we believe will best serve the future needs of our consumers and business customers alike. We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible. Those who use Spark and our third-party AR Effects can continue to use these tools across our Family of Apps until January 14, 2025. To stay up to date on important details, next steps and recommended actions before Meta Spark goes away, visit our FAQs.

Thank you.