Instagram filters are dead.

Yes, Meta is sunsetting its third-party effects creation tool, Meta Spark, today. That, coupled with the credible threat of a TikTok ban in the US could put an abrupt halt to this subjectively brief but objectively entertaining filter creation path I’ve been on for the past few years.

So, as is trendy around this time of year, I wanted to look back on some of the weirdest ones I’ve built for Instagram and Facebook. 

Bearded Baby Que

My friends Brian and Cyndi are making Texas-style barbecue food in northern New Jersey. We took their logo, a cute baby with glasses, a beard, and a little hair curl, and tossed it up online so others could try it on.

1.3 million opens and 249k impressions later, we were deliciously surprised at how it was received. If you’re reading this from Santiago, Chile where this effect spread like fire in a smoker, I hope you get a chance to try some of their food one day. I can’t get enough of it! (PS: They cater!)

What Bagel Are You?

If you’re a longtime reader, I’m sure you’re pretty tired of hearing about this one. Yes, it went viral on TikTok. Yes, Drew Barrymore and a slew of other household names put my virtual bagels on their heads for a brief moment in 2022. I blame COVID.

But over on Instagram, it had a life of its own, reaching over 64k people in the US, India, Taiwan, and more. This was also a slight variation on the one I made for TikTok, so I have to wonder if people thought it was a knock-off. I’m sure they lost sleep over that.

chrismelNice

My friend Chris has been actively building an online community for well over a decade now, and I thought it might be fun to make something for his audience to use to connect with one another. Chris and I opted for chrismelNice, one of the custom emotes on his Twitch channel, as our guinea pig. 149k people saw it across the US, India, and others. It was simple and silly, and that’s all it needed to be.

In retrospect, this post might just be a time capsule for me to revisit and remember these projects. But as someone who’s chosen to follow creative pursuits, I’d like to think that these filters (and the two dozen or so others I created for Instagram and Facebook) brought brief moments of joy to the people who used them or saw a video that used them. If the internet is a castle, I’ve chosen to be its jester…or at least the assistant to the (regional) jester, anyway.

So, with Instagram unceremoniously offing its effects platform and TikTok’s future uncertain, I guess I’ll see you over on Snap. I’ve built one pretty fun “lens” (filter, effect) over there (23k impressions, if you’re playing along at home!), and maybe I’ll toss up some more in the new year.

Until next time,
Dan

PS: While the news about Instagram is a bummer, it’s far from career-ending. I do lots of other creative stuff, like copywriting, photography, recently scoring a short film, and more.

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