TikTok now lets anyone create AR effects with its beta tools

Last summer, TikTok began beta testing Effect House, a platform that allows people to create their own augmented reality filters for use within the app. The closed test eventually came to include approximately 450 creators. And starting today, TikTok is opening the program to anyone who wants to take part. Visiting the Effect House website, you’ll find tools and documentation designed to help you begin making your own AR filters.

TikTok has also published a set of dedicated guidelines detailing the policies governing Effect House. In addition to the company’s Community Guidelines, creators will need to adhere to those rules if they want to see their work made accessible to the wider TikTok community. Among the filters that won’t be allowed on the platform include ones that promote plastic surgery. For instance, you can’t upload an effect that lets someone see how their face might look with lip filler.

Many platforms that offer AR effects, including TikTok, feature their share of first-party beauty filters, but in recent months there’s been a backlash against those among both users and lawmakers. In particular, Instagram has come under significant scrutiny in the US after The Wall Street Journal published a report that claimed Facebook’s own researchers had found the app was “harmful for a sizeable percentage of teens.”

TikTok says its Trust and Safety team will review all user-submitted effects to ensure they adhere to its policies before granting them approval. Users can also report filters, which will prompt the company to take another look at the offending effect to see if it misjudged its appropriateness.