When you submit your effect, you'll need to upload a demo video.
Demo videos show a preview of an effect to someone, giving them a flavor of what it will look like before they open it in the camera. On Instagram, they appear alongside your effect in the effect gallery and in the effect tray.
After publishing, you can change your demo video at any time by updating your effect.
Your demo video must meet the Spark AR Policies and accurately represent your effect as it's being used in the Facebook or Instagram camera. The demo video must be suitable for consumption by the Facebook and Instagram general user base, which includes those aged 13 and above.
It should also be:
Our team will review your video to make sure that it meets these requirements. When you publish a new effect, your demo video will be reviewed at the same time as your effect. Demo videos added to existing effects will be reviewed when submitted.
Your demo video is a great opportunity to showcase your effect and encourage people to open it in the camera.
Follow these recommendations to make the best video possible:
Here's an example of a demo video that follows our recommendations and requirements:
There are two ways to capture your demo video – either on a mobile device with the Facebook or Instagram app, or directly within Spark AR Studio. Guides for both methods are available below.
You can open your effect in either the Facebook or Instagram camera to record your video. There are two ways to do this.
From Spark AR Studio:
After clicking send, you can also click Copy Link to send a link to yourself or someone else.
Alternatively, you can open your effect in the Facebook or Instagram camera while publishing on Spark AR Hub. Save your effect submission as a draft, then:
You can also copy the test link to send it to yourself or someone else.
Once you have opened the effect in the Facebook or Instagram camera:
Before submitting the video, you can crop the length if you need to. Otherwise, it shouldn't be edited.
Once your clip is saved to your device, you need to upload it to Spark AR Hub.
While publishing your effect, you’ll have the opportunity to upload a copy of the demo video from your computer, or login to Spark AR Hub from your device to upload the video directly.
You can also replace demo videos for effects that have already been published. Any new videos will be reviewed. The old video will be shown until the new video has been approved.
You will be able to record and upload your demo video directly from Spark AR Studio as long as your effect doesn’t use the back camera or any audio capabilities.
To record and upload your video:
You’ll see your demo video has been added to the publishing screen. After checking that your effect meets the capability and file size requirements for your targeted platforms, click Upload to continue the publishing process on Spark AR Hub. Your demo video will be uploaded to your draft effect automatically.
If you’re creating an effect for a video calling experience only, there’s a third way to record your demo video: Spark AR Player for Desktop. To use this feature, You must have:
To record and upload your video:
In Spark AR Studio, you’ll see your demo video has been added to the publishing screen. After checking that your effect meets the capability and file size requirements for your targeted platforms, click Upload to continue the publishing process on Spark AR Hub. Your demo video will be uploaded to your draft effect automatically.
If you don’t see your effect playing on screen, make sure you’ve enabled permissions for Spark Desktop Player to use the camera on your computer. If the screen is still blank, click the camera icon in Desktop Player to manually enable access.