Facebook Announces New 'Group Effects' for Messenger Video Calls

November 5, 2021

The developers at Facebook have always been keen on adding new features, and very recently, Facebook announced the launch of Group Effects. Group Effects is an AR-based feature designed for Facebook’s Messenger video calls and rooms, the platform’s video conferencing feature. Group Effects brings augmented experience to everyone on a video call making it more fun and exciting to engage. And the company says that they will soon introduce this feature to Instagram as well.

To experience Group Effects, start a video call or create a room and tap on the smiley face to open the effects tray and then select Group Effects. Users can now choose from 70 different effects, including a game where you can compete to build the best burger.

Facebook says that it will let more creators and developers build group effects by the end of the month by expanding access to its Spark AR API. This initiative will support creators in creating more engaging and interactive effects for the audience and will undoubtedly transform the way we experience video calling.

Until now, AR was a solo experience where we could apply AR effects to one participant or use filters to photos or videos on stories or reels. But now, it has changed entirely as people could experience a shared virtual experience.

Facebook launches Group Effects in Messenger when they are making a push around “Metaverse” efforts and renaming it into ‘Meta.’ Like everyone, we are eagerly waiting to see what this company will be coming up next to push it towards ‘Metaverse’ and get people more acquainted with the shared virtual experience.

If you are in the quest of finding the right augmented reality platform to create an augmented experience or AR apps, please send us a mail to info@iboson.io.