The video app now has a companion suite for AR development.

Last year, social media platform TikTok announced that they were building their own suite of AR development tools for user usage. This development platform, known as Effect House, has been quietly running in a closed beta for several months now as creators sign on and use it to create their own filters and effects. Yesterday, TikTok finally released Effect House to the public at large.

Today we opened the Effect House beta to everyone, inviting creative builders from around the world to develop effects for TikTok. ✨ https://t.co/CfxtWHnUK7

— TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) April 12, 2022

Effect House’s closed beta has switched to an open beta, which means while the platform is still technically in development, it can now be freely downloaded and tried out by anyone interested. Effect House allows users to create extremely detailed visual effects for their TikTok videos using a surprisingly in-depth development process.

“Effect House brings your storytelling to life through powerful, intuitive, and expressive features,” says the Effect House page. “Our built-in capabilities — from advanced tracking to rich interactions — enable you to experiment, create, preview, publish and manage all your effects on TikTok.”

Today, Effect House @tiktok has officially gone live via @TechCrunch https://t.co/QbfzqsC8Yw

— WENDY W FOK | 霍渭瑜 (@W_W_F) April 12, 2022

For those who are unfamiliar with visual manipulation and coding, the Effect House platform also features many tutorials and documentation to educate and instruct in its usage. There are rules in place for the creation of new filters, however, in order to prevent misuse and bullying on the TikTok platform. For example, any filters that promote the use of harmful stereotypes or encourage scrutiny of another’s appearance are prohibited.