How to find Effects on Instagram

IG face filters and effects are a blast to use when you find one that matches your style! Although, it’s often difficult to find new and cool effects on Instagram, especially when you have a concept or idea in mind that you’re looking for. That’s why in today’s blog post we’re going to break down the three main ways to find effects on Instagram right now. The first two you may be familiar with, but the last might surprise you! 

Find Instagram Effects through IG Stories

Finding fun IG face filters through stories is easy enough if the people you’re following are also passionate about finding and sharing fun effects. To find an effect using this method, one would tap through the Instagram Stories of their social media circle and wait until finding a story that uses an effect. From here, it's easy to save that effect to your IG camera by tapping on the effect name in the top left corner of the story. Tapping the effect name will bring up a menu at the bottom of the screen that gives you the options to try the effect, save the effect, send through DM and more! 

This route may be challenging if the people you follow are also struggling to find effects, but don’t worry, these next two options are more reliable! 

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Find Instagram Effects by following Creators

Currently, the majority of face filters on Instagram are made by creators who are just having fun creating happy experiences in Augmented Reality (AR). AR is a very diverse landscape of creativity, featuring elements such as 2D design, 2D animation, 3D modelling, 3D animation, beauty, coding etc. You can find creators that specialize in making just the type of Instagram effects you’re looking for. You will know when you find an account that is creating IG face filters because it will have a tiny face filter icon on their profile. Tapping that icon will take you to their filter feed, which is similar to the regular IG feed that you’re familiar with, but specifically for IG effects!

From this filter feed you can preview all of the IG face filters that the creator has made, test them out, and save them to your camera deck for later use! This is a great method to stay up to date with the newest effects because once you follow the creator, you’ll automatically find new and popular IG face filters that they have published in your camera deck without having to work to find them! Some cool creators making Instagram effects are @iamcraiglewis2, @chrislprice, @mayttearaneda, @farrkhatb and our personal favorite @bangerooo.

Find effects using the Effect Gallery on Instagram

If you’re reading this article to learn more about finding IG face filters, chances are the news that there is actually a place on Instagram that categorizes and contains all published Instagram effects, called  Effect Gallery, is a surprise! You’re not alone, AR is new to Instagram and the effect gallery is still super hidden. 

You can find the effect gallery by opening the same menus outlined above, and hitting the More (‘...’) button. This will bring up another menu (haha) with one of the options being ‘browse effects’. Hitting that button will take you into the elusive effect gallery! Here you have the option to choose from categories including Selfies, Color & Light, Camera Styles, Moods, Funny, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Games and more! You also have the ability to search the effect gallery using any keywords of your choice. Currently, finding cool Instagram effects by searching popular keywords might be difficult because there are a lot of effects, some quite poorly made (ahem), that will also appear for that keyword and there is no way to further refine your search. We expect improvements made to the effect gallery before Instagram moves it into an area that is easier to find!

We hoped that this helped you in your quest for noteworthy Instagram effects, if you’re a brand looking for an effect for your Instagram check out our recent client work or contact us. If you’re an effect enthusiast Spark AR is a free to download software with tutorials on making basic effects!