Banuba in 2024: Face AR, Video Editor SDK and TINT Updates

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TL;DR

• Banuba Face AR SDK added face matching in April 2024, giving teams 1:1 verification alongside tracking and effects.

• Banuba Face AR SDK also added pupillary distance measurement in that release; the measurement eyewear virtual try-on depends on it to place lenses correctly.

• Light source detection landed in October 2024, so Banuba Face AR SDK effects can react to the lighting the user is actually sitting in.

• Banuba Face AR SDK's studio lighting adds up to four directional light sources with configurable colour and direction on top of a GLTF model.

• Personalized 3D avatars shipped as an iOS beta, built from face attributes Banuba Face AR SDK detects rather than from a manual character creator.

• Banuba Video Editor SDK's AI Clipping cuts three or more source videos into one edit and matches it to the beat of the track.

• Banuba Video Editor SDK ships over 35 GB of royalty-free music through a built-in music browser, so licensing is settled before the track reaches the timeline.

• Banuba TINT moved Oceane's add-to-cart rate from the 3% industry average to 20.15%, and later to a 32% peak.

• Boca Rosa's four-hour pre-launch event ran on Banuba TINT and earned over $900,000 across more than 1.7 million try-on sessions.

Face AR SDK

Our flagship product now offers many new features. Some of the most notable ones are:

• Teeth shade detection and whitening. The SDK detects the person's existing teeth shade against the VITA guide used in dental tech, and the whitening algorithm was rebuilt in 2024 to simulate bleaching from that starting point.
• Biometric match. Comparing two faces and determining whether they are the same. It is a 1:1 verification check, used in authentication flows such as KYC onboarding, access control, and biometric login.
• Studio lighting. Up to four simulated directional light sources with configurable colour and direction, applied to a GLTF model to achieve a unique look.
• Pupillary distance measurement. Determining the distance between the centers of the person's pupils. It is important for eyewear virtual try-on, as it helps place digital glasses correctly.
• Personalized avatars. Face AR SDK can create a user's avatar using their picture or video feed. It reads the face attributes it detects, including hair colour, eye colour, skin tone, hair and facial hair style, and nose and lips shape, to make the avatar as close to the person as possible. Moreover, it copies the user's facial expressions for a more immersive experience. The feature shipped as an iOS beta in 2024.

On the technical side, Face AR SDK is distributed as CocoaPods and Maven packages for iOS and Android, and as the @banuba/webar npm package for the web, so integration runs through the package managers a mobile or front-end team already uses. Bundle size depends on which features are switched on: the base size is around 15 Mb, and the minimum Face AR SDK size breakdown covers what each module adds.

It was also a good year for the clients using Face AR SDK.

For instance, b.stage, a fandom business company, reached 1 million monthly active users (MAUs) thanks in part to Banuba's technology powering their live chat.

Video Editor SDK

The capabilities of Video Editor SDK also grew:

• AI Clipping. Similar to TikTok's Autocut, this feature combines three or more videos into one using artificial intelligence. It automatically determines the most important elements and matches the final clip to the beat of the soundtrack, making content creation much easier.
• AI captions. Closed captions generated straight from the audio track, which drastically decreases the time it takes for a creator to add subtitles to their video. Given how much short-form content is watched with the sound off, captions are what keep it watchable.
• Royalty-free music. Video Editor SDK users have access to over 35 GB of tracks that they can place in their content without worrying about copyright. They are browsed and inserted from inside the editor, through a built-in music browser.
• New UX flow. The editor's user experience has been overhauled to cover both experienced creators and newcomers to the video editing space.

Of course, there were more minor improvements and technical upgrades to increase performance and make working with Video Editor SDK easier for both developers and end-users.

TINT

TINT, Banuba's virtual try-on platform, saw a few improvements as well.

The most visible change was storefront coverage. TINT has native integrations for Tiendanube and Nuvemshop, and it is compatible with other major content management systems and custom setups, so a store can add virtual try-on without building the front end for it. The dedicated Shopify app followed shortly after, in early 2025. Merchants install the widget from the platform's app marketplace, and deeper work, such as wiring try-on into the cart, is done through the store theme and the cart API.

TINT is a browser-based widget, delivered over HTTPS and served from a CDN, which is how it reaches desktop and mobile shoppers without an app install. Its recommendation engine runs seasonal colour analysis across the catalog so the products most likely to suit the shopper surface first.

The LATAM market has also seen impressive success stories.

In particular, Oceane, a Brazilian cosmetics manufacturer and retailer, had a test run of TINT. Its add-to-cart rate quickly skyrocketed from 3% (industry average) to 20.15%, a more than 600% increase. This led to rapid sales growth, and the company had to quickly order more stock to meet the surging demand.

But the add-to-cart rate kept growing and peaked at a whopping 32% in July.

Another great case study was Boca Rosa, an influencer-led beauty brand. TINT was a part of its pre-launch event, which turned out to be hugely successful. In 4 hours, Boca Rosa managed to sell $900,000 worth of merchandise, with customers running more than 1.7 million try-on sessions. The brand's online store is fully up, with TINT thoroughly integrated.

Banuba Studio

To make working with our SDKs easier, we have released a web-based app for creating effects, Banuba Studio.

It lets users build effects from scratch, or take a model made in any 3D graphical editor and convert it into the format the SDKs support. And the studio's interface makes the app easy to use even for inexperienced creators.

And if the DIY approach doesn't fit you, feel free to browse the Banuba Asset Store for the filters that you need.

Thanks for trusting us!

All of these improvements couldn’t have been possible without you – our clients and partners. We work for you and are always happy to see you succeed.

May the coming year bring you prosperity, new opportunities, and powerful growth. And if there is something cutting-edge augmented reality can help you with, don’t hesitate to let us know.