In the distant 2013, the Oxford Dictionary called “selfie” the word of the year. That was when front-facing cameras conquered the globe, letting people share their selfies on social media. Right now, we are approaching 2023, and our selfies have been improved by AR face filters.
AR face filters are visual effects generated by a computer that are imposed on or around your face through your device camera. And nowadays, numerous companies are using different types of AR face filters in various ways.
How Brands Can Use AR Face Filters
1. Create virtual try-on tools
Virtual try-on is one of the most common uses of AR face filters among beauty and fashion brands. With the help of this technology, customers can see whether a certain kind of makeup, glasses, hats, or hair color suits them. This does not simply give brands a chance to stand out but also helps them win the competition and reduce the return rate during online shopping, as customers are given the opportunity to try before they actually buy a product. For example, Maybelline New York uses makeup virtual try-ons, while Michael Kors allows its customers to virtually try on glasses. This way, the connection between clients and the brand becomes even stronger.
2. Improve gaming experience
Face AR games are a great tool to increase customer engagement. You can create your own game face filter to entertain your clients and make them feel fully engaged in your brand. Users can control the game process with their facial expression, eye blinking, head movements, etc. For example, Pucelle, the Indonesian beauty brand, created a face AR game which used facial gestures to move the digital character running and collecting points in the streets of the city. That was how the brand managed to reach out to millennials and increase its target audience.
So, whether you own a beauty company or a clothes brand, you can consider creating an AR game that will make your product more popular.
3. Build a connection with users with the help of randomizing AR face filters
The number of such face filters is enormous now. The emergence of randomizing filters started with the viral filter “Which Disney (News - Alert) Character Are You?” which appeared in 2019. From that moment on, practically every brand made an attempt to implement that kind of filter in their marketing strategy. For example, IKEA launched the “Which IKEA Icon Are You?” filter on Instagram, allowing customers to see which of the 12 IKEA items the user matched with. All in all, randomizing filters are a perfect chance to establish the brand-customer connection.
4. Educate using quiz AR face filters
As for the quiz AR filters, the name speaks for itself. Brands and companies can create quizzes related to their products or services. For example, if you are a coffee shop owner, you can create your personal quiz to widen your customers’ knowledge about coffee production. So, everything depends on your imagination!
5. Increase social awareness with AR face filters
AR face filters may be used to direct people’s attention to socially important problems. The brightest example here may be Snapchat’s collaboration with (RED) and the Bill Gates (News - Alert) Foundation to support people with HIV. That campaign was held on the 1st of December in 2015, during World AIDS Day. Each use of the filter triggered a $ 3 donation from the Bill Gates Foundation. Though it didn’t sound much, eventually, they managed to collect over $ 3 million.
6. Help users connect with each other in a new way
Face AR filters make the communication process easier. Women don’t have to wear make-up to shoot a video or go online; they can simply use multiple AR masks to feel more confident. Plus, capturing creative videos or live streaming is much easier now. For example, you can swap your background in a snap. This is particularly useful for remote work. When you are working from home, something unexpected may happen in the background at any moment: a child passing by, a dog sleeping, etc. So, the background change can be a real rescuer in such situations, particularly if the video call is unexpected. In such a way, face filters enhance your privacy and make your communication safer and more comfortable.
Banuba’s Face AR SDK Software
Let’s take a look on the one of the fast-growing AR companies.
Banuba is known as a face software company whose mission is to immerse people in the AR world. So, it offers developers easy though powerful ways to create AR apps that will make the difference.
You can create your face AR filters in any 3D graphical editor and convert them into the SDK supported formats. Or you can choose from the collection of over 1000 AR face filters which you can license in your app.
It is supplied with a 3D renderer, which opens a bunch of marvelous graphical technologies, like 3D modeling and animation, video textures, image-based lighting, etc.
Banuba SDK is compatible with any platform and runs on smartphones starting from iOS 10.0+ and Android (News - Alert) 6.0 or higher. The SDK works both in the offline and online modes.
