Meta Platforms META will shut down the augmented reality studio that was used by third parties to create custom Instagram and Facebook effects, the social media giant said on Tuesday, as it focuses spending on other areas such as AI.
The feature, Meta Spark, will be shut down on January 14, and third-party AR effects, including computer-generated filters, masks, and 3D objects created with the studio, will be removed.
The social media company said its third-party AR effects will continue to be available on products like Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.
Meta has invested primarily in AI products and the metaverse – a shared virtual environment that it believes will be the successor to the mobile internet.
“With the decision to shut down the Meta Spark platform, we are also shifting our resources to the next generation of experiences that include new form factors like glasses,” the company said in a blog.
Third-party developers expressed their disappointment with the announcement and sought alternatives in the Meta Spark community group on Facebook.
“I wonder how many people will migrate to Snapchat Lens Studio or Unity now that Meta Spark is being discontinued,” one user wrote in a Facebook post.
There smaller Competitor Snap 
SNAP offers Lens Studio, a free AR creation platform that allows developers to create custom AR effects.
In May, Meta announced that it would discontinue its work-focused Workplace app (link) for customers starting in June 2026, but would continue to use it as an internal company messaging board.
The company also said Tuesday that existing Reels or Stories that use third-party AR effects will continue to be available to users, but AR effects and files in Meta Spark Studio and Meta Spark Hub will no longer be accessible.
