Managing AR Effects With Spark AR Hub

The first question new creators typically ask us is, “what can I make with Spark AR Studio?” And then the very next question is almost always, “how do I get my effect on Instagram or Facebook?” For this, the answer’s simple — you’ll use Spark AR Hub.

What is Spark AR Hub?

Spark AR Hub is the product creators use to publish, manage, track and understand the performance of their AR effects across Facebook’s family of apps and devices. Spark AR Hub is available to anyone with a Facebook account and can be accessed at https://www.facebook.com/sparkarhub/dashboard.

When do I use Spark AR Hub?

When your AR effect is built, and you have all the assets you need to publish, you’ll use the export features within Spark AR Studio to prep your effect. If it’s your first time, we have a step-by-step guide to exporting effects that’s helpful to follow. When your export is complete, you’ll upload your exported file to Spark AR Hub. From this point forward, you’ll use Spark AR Hub to manage your effect.

Where can I publish my AR effect?

Today, when you’re uploading an effect to Spark AR Hub, you’ll be asked to select a destination: Facebook or Instagram. Instagram is our newest platform for Spark AR effects — we opened it up to everyone earlier this summer.

Depending on which destination you pick, your effect will be publicly available through the Facebook or Instagram cameras once it’s approved. One important note on approvals: all submitted effects must follow our community standards and platform policies. Additionally, for Instagram, we have some great tips you can reference to help boost your chances for approval.

How can I promote and share my AR effects?

Once your effect is approved, a unique link to your effect will be created via Spark AR Hub. You can then use this link to share your effect wherever you like (e.g., on your Facebook Profile, Facebook Page, personal blog, social media accounts, etc). When someone clicks on it, it’ll automatically open your effect in their Facebook or Instagram camera. Now, there are a variety of ways you can further promote your effect to help people find it and try it out. We’ve compiled some helpful tips and tactics you can try when you’re ready.

How do I measure the performance of my AR effects?

Spark AR Hub provides Insights to help you track and understand how your published effects are performing on both Facebook and Instagram. We provide three metrics across each platform: Impressions, Captures and Shares. We’ll explain each:

• Impressions is the number of times your effect was shown on a screen. This includes when an effect is shown while someone is trying it out in the camera, and when the effect is displayed in a shared story or post.
• Captures is the number of times someone captured a photo or video that featured your effect in the Facebook or Instagram camera.
• Shares is the number of times someone took and shared a photo or video that featured your effect to a Facebook or Instagram story or post.

Keep in mind, this is only an introduction to Spark AR Hub. There are additional features and controls you can use to manage all of your effects, but we hope this helps you get started!

To discover more step-by-step guides and tutorials about Spark AR Hub, please check out the Spark AR Learning Center. And if you’re looking to connect and learn from other creators, the Spark AR Creator Community is a long-standing Facebook group, and is an incredible resource for all Spark AR creators. Other resources you may want to explore include this fine place, our Spark AR Blog, as well as the Spark AR newsletter, Facebook Page and Instagram Profile.

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