Instagram’s Effect Builder makes new filters from AI prompts

After expanding its Edits app to macOS last week, Instagram’s next move is launching this Effect Builder that generates custom filters for your Stories posts with AI. Available now for US residents who are over 18, it has a prompt box for describing your filter idea to the chatbot, with an option to attach style reference images.

Then you can upload your own photos to preview the AI-generating effects, and ask for changes in follow-up prompts. There’s also an option to allow Instagram’s AI to rewrite your prompt, which turned my one-line test prompt “Make a filter that turns photos into comic book pages” into several AI-generated paragraphs of detailed style requests on everything from color palette to lighting. The filter Effect Builder generated as a result still looked nearly identical to its output for my original one-liner.

You can submit your filters to Instagram directly from Effect Builder, but effects have to pass a safety review before they’ll be available to other users. Instagram says after an effect is approved, it “shows up in Instagram Stories for anyone to use, and whenever someone uses your effect we’ll link back to your profile so that it’s easy for others to find your work.”