Meta To Start Testing NFTs On Instagram Stories With Spark AR

Earlier this week, Meta also declared that it would join with other technology firms to build a Metaverse standards body.

Instagram’s parent company, Meta, announced Wednesday that it would start testing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Instagram Stories with its enhanced reality platform Spark AR.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said of the news, “We’re expanding our test so more creators around the world can display their NFTs on Instagram.” The company also stated in an announcement, “Creators and collectors will be able to share their digital collectibles across Facebook and Instagram after we begin rolling out the feature on Facebook with select US creators at a later date.”

Zuckerberg also confirmed that Facebook is set to support NFTs in the future:

“We’ll bring this feature to Facebook soon too — starting with a small group of US creators — so people can cross-post on Instagram and Facebook. We’ll also test NFTs in Instagram Stories with Spark AR soon.”

In May, Meta released digital collectibles described by the company as “a brand-new way for consumers and creators to share NFTs on Instagram.”

Earlier this week, Meta also announced it would join with other tech companies to create a Metaverse standards body. The group intends to build the next version of the web and develop a shared ethos for Web3 and the Metaverse. Some of the companies who joined the initiative include Adobe, Epic Games, Microsoft, Nvidia and Qualcomm; Apple was noticeably missing from the pack.

Meta isn’t the only company looking to integrate NFTs. It followed social media rival Twitter in bringing NFTs to its platform in January. Twitter’s NFT support allows users to link an Ethereum-based wallet to their account and display their NFT art as profile pictures. eBay recently acquired KnownOrigin, an Ethereum-based NFT marketplace, moving it into the Web3. Even existing DeFi companies like Uniswap are making inroads into the NFT and metaverse markets with their recent acquisition of NFT aggregator Genie.