YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the World Wide Web. Boasting more than two billion monthly users since Feb. 2019, people flock to the site largely to be entertained – by the likes of PewDiePie and T-Series, whose battle has nonetheless beefed up the popularity of the site in recent months – though many others prefer to be educated, such as by the site’s wave of beauty content creators.
Right now, cosmetics reviews and tutorials are among the hottest content on the video-sharing platform. YouTube has recognized this trend and, in response, has developed a feature for its mobile app that will soon allow users to try select brands of makeup on from the comfort of their smartphones.
The feature, which will operate through the power of augmented reality, will be known as AR Beauty Try-On. Users will be able to try on new varieties of makeup in split-screen form while watching their favorite YouTube content creators try them on at the same time.
Through the app, the videos that users are currently watching will play on the upper half of their screens. Assuming that users allow the YouTube app to access their cameras, a stream of their front cameras will appear on the bottom half of their mobile interfaces. At the bottom of their screens, a pop-up containing the name of the product being demoed will appear, which will also mention the price of the product and what brand it hails from. Users will be able to model the cosmetics in a palette of colors, though it isn’t clear if all of the products’ available colors will be available for users to virtually try on.
According to the company, AR Beauty Try-On is in the earliest developmental stages right now. Once it is kicked into action, however, YouTube made clear that it will be available to content creators via FameBit, a platform owned by YouTube’s parent company Google.
So far, says YouTube, some one-third of users who viewed beauty tutorials and reviews via Apple devices using iOS chose to use AR Beauty Try-On. On average, those users spent about 80 seconds trying on various shades of the products offered to them.
Dil Bole Oberoi
