All stories
Social Media

Inside Social AR: The Effects People Choose to Use

There's something I still find a bit funny about my job. Most people use what I make without ever thinking of it as something that was made. You open TikTok or Snapchat, tap the camera, and somewhere in that row of filters and effects is a little piece of software that a real person sat down and built. Since 2020, I've been one of those people. I make Social AR, which is the slightly clinical name for filters and effects on TikTok and Snapchat, and I've been at it long enough now to have a few thoughts on why it actually works.

Let me get one thing out of the way first. "AR" is a terrible word to lead with. It sounds like hardware, like headsets and some future that never quite arrives. What I actually make is much simpler and, honestly, much more fun. An effect you hold up to your face. A little game you play in your kitchen. A scene that reacts when you move. The clever technical part is supposed to vanish. What's left is just something you want to play with.

Why people actually use them

Here's the thing it took me a while to say out loud. A normal ad asks for your attention. A good effect asks you to join in. And it turns out people will join in far more happily than they'll ever simply pay attention.

The numbers are honestly a little wild. On average, people spend around 75 seconds with an AR effect, which is roughly four times longer than they'd give a normal mobile video. Snap says more than 350 million people play with its Lenses every single day, and that AR experiences can lift things like brand awareness and purchase intent several times over compared to a standard ad. Add up the platforms and well over a billion people use AR features every month.

But my favourite part isn't really a statistic. When someone uses your effect, they aren't watching your brand. They're wearing it, playing with it, pointing it at their friends. They become the medium. The content they make doesn't feel like an ad, because in every way that matters, it isn't one. It's theirs. And that's the bit you can't buy with a media budget: a person deciding, all on their own, to press "use effect" and hand your idea to their own audience.

It's already everywhere

If this still sounds a bit niche, take a look at who's already doing it. For the 2025 Super Bowl, the NFL and sponsors like Pepsi and Uber Eats put out a whole set of filters that let fans wear team face paint and catch footballs in AR. Warner Bros made a Snapchat Lens for Dune: Part Two that let people ride a sandworm. Dior ran a dedicated Ramadan Lens. None of this is hidden away in some innovation budget. It's front-line campaign work for some of the biggest names around.

I've been lucky enough to work in that same space. Effects that went out under names like Vodafone, McDonald's, L'Oréal and Disney+, usually quietly, in the background, while an agency kept the client relationship. That's honestly how most of this work happens, and I rather like it that way.

What makes a good one

If there's one thing I'd want a brand or an agency to take from this, it's that the gap between a forgettable effect and one people actually share comes down almost entirely to craft. The tools are available to everyone now. The judgement isn't.

A good effect has one clear idea. It gives you something in the first two seconds, because that's about all the patience anyone has. It feels like it belongs on the platform rather than being stuck on top of it. And the part people tend to forget: it gives you a reason to do it again, or to show a friend. When I'm building a game, I'm not really thinking about the brand in that moment at all. I'm thinking about whether it's fun, because fun is what gets it shared, and sharing is what does the brand any good.

That's also why I get a little twitchy when people treat this as a commodity. Sure, you can knock out a basic filter in minutes now. What you can't rush is the feel. The small calls about timing, reaction and knowing when to hold back. That's the whole difference between something people scroll past and something they choose.

Where this is heading

Social AR sits at a genuinely interesting moment. The tools have grown up, the audience is huge and already completely at home with the format, and the hardware chapter is only just opening. Snap's AR glasses aren't a thought experiment any more. For brands, that means the window where this still feels fresh, and still gives you a bit of an edge, is open right now rather than later.

As for me, I'll keep making the small stuff. The filter you hold up to your face. The little game you didn't expect to enjoy. If you've made it this far and you're wondering what one of these might look like for your own work, my portfolio is the easiest place to start, and I'm always up for talking an idea through.

Sources

A quick note on the numbers: most come from platform and industry reports, so treat them as the optimistic end of the range rather than gospel.