Meta Platforms Inc. has announced the direct integration of its AI-powered photo and video editing capabilities into Instagram Stories. This deployment enables users to leverage text prompts for modifying visual content, including adding, removing, or altering specific elements within images and videos. The move significantly enhances accessibility for these advanced tools, which were previously limited to interactions within the Meta AI chatbot interface.
The new suite of features can be accessed via the \"Restyle\" menu, identifiable by a paintbrush icon located at the top of Instagram Stories. Users are presented with options such as \"add,\" \"remove,\" or \"change,\" allowing them to articulate desired modifications through a prompt bar. For instance, Meta specified capabilities include changing hair color, digitally embedding a crown onto a subject's head, or replacing an existing background with a sunset scene. Beyond custom prompts, the integration also provides preset effects. These allow for alterations such as adding virtual accessories like sunglasses or a biker jacket to a subject's attire, applying a watercolor artistic style to an image, or incorporating dynamic environmental effects like falling snow or flames into videos.
Engagement with Meta AI on Instagram necessitates acceptance of Meta's AI Terms of Service. These terms permit the analysis of user media and facial features by artificial intelligence, with stated purposes including summarizing image contents, modifying existing images, and generating new content based on uploaded media. This initiative underscores Meta's ongoing strategy to introduce and expand AI functionalities across its platforms, reflecting a broader effort to maintain competitive standing in the rapidly evolving technology landscape.
The recent integration follows other significant AI developments by Meta. The company was observed testing a \"Write with Meta AI\" prompt designed to assist Instagram users in formulating comments for posts. Furthermore, last month saw the launch of \"Vibes,\" an AI-generated short-form video feed integrated within the Meta AI app. This particular introduction correlated with a notable increase in the app's user base; data from Similarweb indicated that daily active users on iOS and Android surged to 2.7 million by October 17, representing a substantial rise from approximately 775,000 four weeks prior. Concurrently, Meta also unveiled new parental control features for its AI experiences, allowing parents to disable chats with AI characters and monitor conversational topics involving their teenage users, addressing emerging concerns related to AI interaction.
