【India】

Instagram is Indiaadding another layer to its shopping feature: augmented reality.

Beginning today, a handful of brands that sell their products directly on Instagram will be able to add a new augmented reality try-on feature to product pages. Initially, the new AR feature will be limited to cosmetics (Mac and Nars are early partners) and eyewear brands (Warby Parker and Ray-Ban), but Instagram plans to make it available for more products over time.

The idea is to use augmented reality to help Instagram shoppers preview how certain types of products will actually look on their face. The underlying tech is the same Spark AR platform that powers much of Instagram's camera effects and Facebook's augmented reality ads.

---

You May Also Like

---

---

There's a few ways Instagram users might encounter the new shopping feature. The first is while checking out specific products a brand has tagged in a post. You'll have the option to try out the product via an augmented reality filter before adding it to your cart.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

But Instagram is also hoping users will be inspired to share these AR experiences in Stories, which will also link back to the original product. In that way, brands might be able to capture the same kind of virality as a well-timed selfie filter.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

"You can share it through Stories with friends, brands can create Stories — that's definitely one of the primary ways in which we think that people will shop," says Srilatha Raghavan, product manager for AR commerce at Facebook.

For Instagram, which first introduced an in-app checkout feature in March, it's yet another sign the service is moving deeper into to e-commerce.

Though there are still only a small number of brands that are able to use Instagram's native shopping feature (and, for now, even fewer that can use AR shopping), commerce is an incredibly important part of the platform. Facebook, for one, has made it clear that it sees commerce as one of Instagram's "big bets" for the future.

Meanwhile, for brands, Instagram has long been strategically important, even before the app offered its own shopping channels.

"Instagram is such an important platform for product discovery, particularly in beauty," says Dina Fierro, VP of Global Digital Strategy at Nars Cosmetics, one of Instagram's initial shopping partners. "It is very clear that Instagram impacts purchases whether that's happening online or offline."

By adding its own shopping features, and letting users interact with products, Instagram will be even better at capturing your attention — and possibly your wallet.

Topics Augmented Reality Facebook Instagram Social Media

• Games
• Life
• Entertainment
• Shopping
• Deals
• Tech
• Digital Culture
• Social Good

• What a dogshit week.
• Kamala Harris' reactions to Mike Pence at the VP debate are all you need to see
• 9 accounts to follow to expand your understanding of LGBTQ history
• Happy Birthday, Ballpoint! by Sadie Stein
• Soundtrack to a Drug War
• Document: Tim O’Brien’s Archive by Sarah Funke Butler
• Marilyn’s Books, Hemingway’s Vacation by Sadie Stein
• See You There: The Paris Review in L.A. by Sadie Stein
• The Secret Policeman at the Marathon
• Comedian hilariously imitates the fly on Mike Pence's head

• Map of the world's rudest place names is a thing of beauty
• Killfies: India tops the list of most selfie deaths again
• Ellen DeGeneres forgot her ID and can't get into the White House
• Here's where we left off with everyone on 'Gilmore Girls'
• Let a Butterball Turkey Talk
• Voting, cyber and political experts write letter demanding Russia hacking investigation
• Donald Trump's grandfather was banned from Germany for avoiding military service
• Under Trump, dark days ahead for net neutrality and the open internet
• Truck driver fired via text gets his sweet revenge
• 'League of Legends' team's board game is a labor of love

• Flint, A Complete City
• 'Quordle' today: See each 'Quordle' answer and hints for June 1
• Island of the Blue Dolphins Cave is Found by Sadie Stein
• Postcard from San Francisco by Sadie Stein
• We are really bad at heeding warnings about disasters
• Prankster owns Alex Jones with ridiculous pitch for Infowars mascot
• The Long and Short of It by Sadie Stein
• Happy November! by Sadie Stein
• Podcast. Podcast. Podcast. Podcast.
• Finnegans Wake: An Illustrated Panorama by Jason Novak

• Going Deeper Underground
• Letter from a Haunted House: Part 2 by Amie Barrodale
• Circus and the City: New York, 1793–2010 by John Reed
• In Search of Lost Time by Anna Wiener
• Summon Your Tech Kids to the White House Day
• Trump's Twitter account went on an all
• Thessaly’s Ideal Bookshelf by Sadie Stein
• MacBook Air at WWDC 2023: What to expect from Apple
• The Speaker and the Ironworker
• Edward Lear’s Cat by Sadie Stein