Instagram Stories is getting new AI-powered editing tools

Meta is bringing more of its generative AI-powered photo and video editing tools directly to Instagram Stories. With the changes, you can now use text prompts to remove or change objects in your photos or “restyle” the image completely.

The new tools live in a new “restyle” menu at the top of the Stories composer. You can select “add,” “remove” or “change” to tweak specific elements of your images. These features work a lot like either AI-based image editing tools; you can do things like remove stray objects from the backgrounds of photos or change up a person’s outfit. You can also make more dramatic edits, like in the photo below, when I asked Meta AI to “change the background to make it look like the cat is in space.”

The prompt bar can also be used to iterate on images without the “add, change, remove” constraints. It still takes a couple seconds for Meta AI to come up with its creations, but it’s an overall much faster and smoother experience than the company’s first “imagine” image generator from nearly two years ago.

Meta has also added some preset effects that change the style of an entire image (e.g. anime, watercolor, 8-bit) without a prompt. There are also some presets specifically for “short videos,” according to Meta, though I’m only seeing restyle options for photos for now.

Meta is also testing some “restyle” effects for text within Stories posts. This will allow people to mix things up from the same few font styles Instagram typically has available. Like with the image edits, you can ask Meta to customize the look of your words (e.g “make it look like toy blocks”).

The changes will make Meta AI’s image and video editing features much more prominent to Instagram users, Meta AI has had the ability to change and restyle images for some time, but those features have been confined to chats with the Meta AI assistant. By now adding text-based prompts directly to Stories, these tools are a lot more accessible. Instagram is further encouraging users to share their new AI-inspired creations with a new “add yours” sticker that lets people share prompts others can iterate on.