Warby Parker’s AR app lets you virtually try on frames

Warby Parker tried and then scrapped virtual eyeglass fittings with augmented reality. The technology didn’t quite fit with the experience of trying on an actual pair of frames.

Now the e-commerce brand is confident that what you see on your iPhone is what you’ll get thanks to an iOS app update that uses the TrueDepth cameras of all X-class iPhones.

Warby Parker is poised to further disrupt the eyewear space. It began as a direct-to-consumer frame maker, shipping five frames for customers to try on at home. Now, 3D face scanning makes selecting a pair real and more convenient, not to mention eventually cutting back on shipping costs for the company.

An update to the app is available today for iPhone X, XR and XS models. The TrueDepth and AR tools can record subtle contours of the face, including the positions of the eyes, ears, and nose.

“It was really our first time building out a full AR feature as a company, and there were two things that were really important,” Director of E-Commerce and Consumer Insights Erin Collins told Tech Crunch. “The first was getting fit right, which was a technical challenge that required a bunch of revisions. And the second thing was making sure the frame images looked as photorealistic as possible, which meant getting 3D artists to digital render them and lots of revisions to get it pixel perfect on each pair of frames.”

The app lets users grab a screenshot to send around to friends for opinions. No word on whether an Android version of the app is in the works.

Source: Tech Crunch