Messenger 360 Backgrounds

In March of 2020 the world rapidly shifted from IRL interactions to living life on video chat. Facebook responded by enhancing their video calling features, including a project I led: developing a background replacement feature for Messenger. Within a tight timeframe, I spearheaded the creative strategy and oversaw the production of this new feature.

Leveraging Meta’s AR engine, Spark AR Studio, my team developed the first gyroscope-enabled 360° background replacement feature in a major video calling application. Over 18 months, as the project lead, I led a team of technical artists and 3D artists, and coordinated with over a dozen vendors to create more than 150 immersive backgrounds. Our technical innovations included integrating streaming video backgrounds, GIF integration, animation, and interactivity into these backgrounds. I also devised a content strategy aimed at creating timely and culturally relevant content, including launched a partnerships initiative and an artist partnership program.