YouTube is expanding the available of its augmented reality, or AR Beauty Try-On feature, which has been testing in limited alpha since earlier this year. On iOS and Android you’ll be able to able to try on lipstick (and later other types of makeup) by tapping the so-called Masthead and TrueView Discovery ads associated to these products.
Masthead ads are the videos that autoplay that you see at the top of the mobile app interface, while TrueView Discovery ads are the ones that show up at the top of your search results as well as at the top of your “Up Next” section when you are viewing a video. You can distinguish them from other videos by the yellow “Ad” moniker.
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The AR Beauty feature will then essentially split YouTube’s interface in the app into two halves, where the top half will be used to show the video you just tapped on. On the bottom half the app will open your front facing camera, then use AR filters to allow you to see what different shades of this lipstick will look. There is a colour selector at the bottom of the interface to make looking at various shades as simple as possible.
The fashion and beauty industries are extremely important for YouTube. Many YouTube creators have become multi-millionaires by making makeup, hair and fashion tutorials, opinions and other content. Shane Dawson, prolific YouTube figure, has even turned this industry into a documentary series, focusing on YouTube beauty icon Jeffree Star.
Not only are these channel on YouTube garnering massive following, but there is even now a dedicated fashion homepage on YouTube.
This new YouTube feature comes as a competitor to Instagram, which has been using this type of AR feature for some time. It will be fascinating to see whether or not YouTube build additional features like this, which will work elsewhere other than ads.
