Create Your Own Instagram-Style Photo Effects with Instasize (2026 Guide)

Instagram's camera still has a face-icon effects tray for stories, photos, and videos, but what's in it changed in 2025. Meta shut down the Spark AR platform on January 14, 2025, and with it went every third-party and creator-made AR effect — the influencer and brand filters that used to fill out that tray are gone. Only Meta's own official effects remain in Instagram's camera today.

That makes building your own look with Instasize more useful than it used to be, not less — you're no longer just picking from a shrinking tray of pre-made filters, you're creating something nobody else's account has.

On Instasize, you can create your own Instagram-style effects. Here are some options you can choose from:

1. Give Your Story a Blurred Background

Want your Instagram story to have a unique effect? Add a blurred background. Tap the border icon on Instasize and tap the ‘Blurred’ option. You can choose to blur any photo or even the same photo and the app automatically blurs it as a background image for your photo. Pretty nifty and unique!

2. Add an Awesome Texture as a Backdrop

You don’t just get blurred backgrounds on Instasize, you can add a background of virtually any pattern or photo you want. Instasize’s library of patterns have plenty you can work with, making your photo fun and really pop, but you can also upload your own.

3. Include Stylized Text Overlays

Sometimes, the right word with the right look can be a fun addition to your image. Add a text via Instasize, and use either its free editing tool to adjust the size and placement of the word or phrase on your photo, including over 20 fonts, or with Instasize Text Styles custom typographic designs. You can even overlay multiple text boxes to get a drop shadow or outline effect.

4. Use Natural Filters

Filters usually enhance a photo, or give it an artistic edge. When you want filters to make sure your photos look on brand and high quality, you usually only use a handful. Why not get crazy and try out other filters you’ve never tried before?

Depending on the photo you upload, applying an Instasize filter can have an extreme effect, and you’ll be surprised by what you come up with.

5. Use Multiple Filters

Ever wonder what it would look like if you used multiple filters on a single image? That will definitely give you a unique effect that a single in-app filter can't match on its own.

Just save a filtered image, reupload it on Instasize and pick a different filter to overlay it with the one that is already on the image!

Want to add to a story with a custom look? You can also download the photo, upload it to Instasize and enhance it from there. It’s great for if you want to make additional tweaks like retouching with beauty tools, or making sure your photo is the best quality by adjusting the photo’s settings.

FAQ

Are third-party Instagram filters and effects still available? No. Meta shut down the Spark AR platform on January 14, 2025, and every third-party or creator-made AR effect was removed from Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. Only Meta's own built-in effects remain in the camera's face-icon tray.

Can I still use effects other people already posted with? Existing photos and videos that already used a third-party effect before the shutdown are unaffected — the removal only stopped new use of those effects, not content that already exists.

Instagram's camera effects tray is smaller now than it used to be, but building your own edits with Instasize will always give you a look nobody else's account has.