diff --git a/src/plugins/expressions/common/expression_types/filter.ts b/src/plugins/expressions/common/expression_types/filter.ts
index 2608da6854b18..eb384fa0cd25b 100644
--- a/src/plugins/expressions/common/expression_types/filter.ts
+++ b/src/plugins/expressions/common/expression_types/filter.ts
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ const name = 'filter';
  * Represents an object that is a Filter.
  */
 export interface Filter {
+  version?: number;
   type?: string;
   value?: string;
   column?: string;
@@ -34,9 +35,35 @@ export interface Filter {
   query?: string | null;
 }
 
+const migrator = {
+  isUnsupported: (p: any) => !p.version || p.version < 2,
+  isLegacy: (p: any) => p.version && p.version < 3,
+  migrate: (legacyFilter: any) => ({ ...legacyFilter, version: 3 }),
+};
+
+function parseAndValidate(s: string): Filter {
+  try {
+    const parsed = JSON.parse(s);
+    if (migrator.isUnsupported(parsed)) {
+      throw new Error('LEGACY');
+    }
+    return parsed;
+  } catch (e) {
+    if (e.message === 'LEGACY') {
+      throw new Error('Provided filter string is malformed or no longer supported');
+    }
+    throw new Error('Unable to parse filter string.');
+  }
+}
+
 export const filter = (): ExpressionType<typeof name, Filter> => ({
   name,
   from: {
+    string: s => {
+      const { isLegacy, migrate } = migrator;
+      const parsed = parseAndValidate(s);
+      return isLegacy(parsed) ? migrate(parsed) : parsed;
+    },
     null: () => {
       return {
         type: name,
diff --git a/src/plugins/expressions/public/functions/combine_filters.ts b/src/plugins/expressions/public/functions/combine_filters.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..cae3058f6374a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/plugins/expressions/public/functions/combine_filters.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch B.V. under one or more contributor
+ * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright
+ * ownership. Elasticsearch B.V. licenses this file to you under
+ * the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ * not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+import { Filter } from '../../common/expression_types';
+import { ExpressionFunction } from '../../common/types';
+
+interface Arguments {
+  filter: string;
+}
+
+type Output = Filter;
+
+export function combineFilters(): ExpressionFunction<'combineFilters', null, Arguments, Output> {
+  return {
+    name: 'combineFilters',
+    type: 'filter',
+    help: 'takes two filters and merges them',
+    args: {
+      filter: {
+        types: ['filter'],
+        aliases: ['_'],
+        multi: true,
+        required: true,
+        help: 'filter object',
+      },
+    },
+    fn: (_context, args) => {
+      return {
+        type: 'filter',
+        ...Object.assign({}, ...args.filter),
+        and: [args.filter], // only here for illustrative purposes
+      };
+    },
+  };
+}
diff --git a/src/plugins/expressions/public/plugin.ts b/src/plugins/expressions/public/plugin.ts
index 034be58ec9e35..3c274ebebdef4 100644
--- a/src/plugins/expressions/public/plugin.ts
+++ b/src/plugins/expressions/public/plugin.ts
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ import {
   setNotifications,
 } from './services';
 import { clog as clogFunction } from './functions/clog';
+import { combineFilters as combineFiltersFunction } from './functions/combine_filters';
 import { font as fontFunction } from './functions/font';
 import { kibana as kibanaFunction } from './functions/kibana';
 import { kibanaContext as kibanaContextFunction } from './functions/kibana_context';
@@ -113,6 +114,7 @@ export class ExpressionsPublicPlugin
     };
 
     registerFunction(clogFunction);
+    registerFunction(combineFiltersFunction);
     registerFunction(fontFunction);
     registerFunction(kibanaFunction);
     registerFunction(kibanaContextFunction);