The New iPhone: A Beauty Mode that's Not What it Seems

I'm writing this from my iPhone 6, and I've been playing around with the new iPhone 10s Max and 10s to see what Apple's done differently. One thing that's caught my attention is the smooth effect going on in selfies taken with Smart HDR turned on. This photo here is a perfect example of it - check out how uniform the complexion looks, like makeup. It's almost as if they've added a beauty mode to the camera app.

For comparison, I took another selfie with Smart HDR turned off. As you can see, it doesn't have the same effect. The image still has some contrast and shadow, but it's nowhere near what we're getting with Smart HDR on. And yet, even without Smart HDR, there's still a noticeable smoothing effect going on in this image - almost like beauty mode is at work.

I know what you're thinking: why would Apple create a beauty mode? Do they really think people want to look artificially smooth and perfect all the time? Well, it turns out that beauty modes are actually a thing in certain markets. So, who's behind this feature, and why did Apple decide to implement it? Those are questions we'll have to answer.

The truth is, there's no toggle for this beauty mode - you can't turn it off if you want to take a selfie without looking like you've been filtered. It's almost as if everyone has to accept that this is the new norm now. And what about when editing? Do people really need to toggle this slider up to make themselves look "beautiful"? The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that Beauty Gate is exactly what Apple's created.

Now, let's take a closer look at some other effects happening in these images. For example, this photo taken with Smart HDR on looks a bit washed out to me - even though my shirt is actually a pretty vibrant color in real life. And when I hold up the phone to take another photo, it seems like the camera is analyzing me right now and putting "makeup" on my face. Is that really what's happening? Or am I just imagining things?

I decided to play around with this further by holding my hand in front of my face while taking photos. And guess what? The color temperature of the image changes dramatically as soon as my face is detected - it goes from a natural, accurate representation to something almost...rosy and perfect. It's like the camera is trying to smooth out not just my skin tone, but my entire complexion.

So, is this really just software at work here? Or is there something more sinister going on behind the scenes? I'm left wondering - and I hope that Apple will shed some light on this soon. After all, if we can choose to turn off this feature when we buy our new phone, that's a lot better than having it be an option that's not available at all.

But even if you don't mind the smooth effect, do you think Smart HDR is really worth it? If you use your iPhone for more than just selfies, then you might appreciate its capabilities - but for those of us who take photos regularly, this feature might be a deal-breaker. And what about when we're editing our photos? Do people want to spend their time smoothing out and brightening their faces, or do they want to keep things natural and realistic?

I'm not sure how big a deal Beauty Gate is going to be, but I think it's definitely worth exploring further. If you're a selfie enthusiast like me, or if you just want to live your best realist life, then this might be something that affects you. So go ahead and take a look at these four images from the same environment - which one do you find most pleasing? And what do you think about Beauty Gate: is it a useful feature, or are we all just being fooled into thinking we're looking our best?

The camera on the new iPhone 10s and 10s Max is not just capable of taking great photos - it's also capable of creating an illusion. And that illusion might be more convincing than you think. But if you want to take control over what your selfies look like, then you might need to get used to some new options soon.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso I noticed something weird with the iPhone 10's max that I've been using that on here Jack is that my actual skin tone couldn't feel about that now if you're following me on social media which you should be for these findings then you know that recently I posted a photo a selfie that I shot on the iPhone 10's max I felt somehow the device was putting me in some kind of automatic beauty mode almost some kind of smooth skin effect was happening and I was like am I crazy am I the only one seeing this so I did a quick search and I found a few different threads on reddit where other people were having similar findings in like men I look like a porcelain doll or a plastic figure when I take a selfie on the iPhone 10s or 10s max so at first I was like let me get to the bottom of this this is probably some kind of processing thing that I can turn off I can just dive into the menus like on other phones that have Beauty modes right like on Samsung or wall and so maybe I can just toggle that down to zero but of course there's no mention of beauty mode because Apple never admitted to doing any kind of beauty mode instead the only processing they talked about was this smart HDR so I went into the settings I found the smart HDR toggle and I turn that off to see if it made much of a difference and it turns out it didn't so whatever type of processing is happening that whatever Apple is doing on these new phones is kind of outside the realm or extra to the smart HDR functionality and analysis of the photo that's about to be taken so anyhow let's talk about the phones I have in front of me here the far left here I have the iPhone 10 regular previous generation iPhone 10 selfie just shot in this environment as I sit here right now next to that is the 10s max that I've been using and evaluating this one here is in the standard 10s and then on the far side here I have an iPhone 6 because why not let's see what Apple and iPhone selfies look like all the way so I'm assuming you're seeing what I'm seeing here on the 10s Max and the 10s it's like this weird smooth effect going on this photo here is with the smart HDR turned on so for me this is the most aggressive smoothing of the bunch in the cheek area here just the complexion in general is so uniform it's just like this kind of makeup it looks like makeup it looks like a beauty mode to be honest in my interpretation now to the left there believe it or not this is with smart HDR turned off so I was hoping that that would fix the problem it may tone it down a little bit and give you slightly more contrast slightly more shadow but it's nowhere near what we were getting on the iPhone 10 even the iPhone 6 I actually have eyebrows which I promise I have in real life so it looks like whatever processing is going on here with the facial recognition and this smart HDR and then whatever extras are there because it's even happening with smart HDR turned off is resulting in this almost covert beauty mode that's going on this secret beauty mode in what some people on reddit are actually calling Beauty gate but here's the thing I know where this conversation goes you start to say to yourself why would they need a beauty mode who really wants a beauty mode we'll ask yourself white do all those other manufacturers have beauty modes turns out it's a popular feature in certain markets you know maybe people want to be smoothed out so you start to reverse engineer the decision and and try to figure out who apples going after and why they would make such a drastic change in how their selfie camera is processing human beings now the crazy part about this is there's no toggle for me it's like fine if you want to look beautiful and you and you want to have a beauty mode so be it you can turn it off but if you're in the realm of editing and making yourself look a particular way sure toggle that slider up but without having the slider it's like it's like everyone has to accept this beauty look and then what people turn around and this just becomes the new norm it's just like oh I didn't I didn't do anything now there's some other things happening in these images you know these ones look a little more washed out to me shirt for example is I mean it's really not this color it's much darker when I hold this up if I go to take a photo it's doing its analysis of me right now it's putting the makeup on my face I don't know if jack can pick that up I do not look like that that's weird let me snap this photo I look like I'm wearing foundation it's very weird it's so weird my beer is not one color in this it kind of comes out there's an analysis tape but I don't know this might not be strictly software this might not be something that can just be toggled off with the switch I hope that's not the case in fact if I hold my hand in front of my face the whole color temperature of the image it changes and then as it sees my face pop in then I get the rosy cheeks and the smooth complexion so it feels like software I hope it's just software we're gonna have to wait and see so look is this the biggest deal in the world I don't know it depends on how important this front-facing camera is to you do you if you use it to capture your memories or post a billion selfies then you probably want to know about this and like people in the office have said maybe some people actually prefer this image in the middle here on the new 10s and 10's max now that you can see these four separate images from the exact same environment which one do you find to be the most pleasing or which one would you want to post of yourself I want to know down in the comments either way here's my plea to Apple like I don't care if you have this amazing neural processing smart HDR facial analysis stuff going on that's fine that's great but just make it make it an option - turn it off - turn it off completely when you buy the phone that's on by default so if I go back to the camera app you see there's no indication that an HDR photo a smart HDR photo is about to take place the vast majority of people are just gonna pop open this device start snapping selfies and just assume they're as beautiful as they look there it is Beauty gate the hidden beauty mode that you can't turn off you should know that before you purchase one of these if you're a big selfie taker and you want to live your best realist life I don't know you might you might go for an iPhone instead I'm just sayingso I noticed something weird with the iPhone 10's max that I've been using that on here Jack is that my actual skin tone couldn't feel about that now if you're following me on social media which you should be for these findings then you know that recently I posted a photo a selfie that I shot on the iPhone 10's max I felt somehow the device was putting me in some kind of automatic beauty mode almost some kind of smooth skin effect was happening and I was like am I crazy am I the only one seeing this so I did a quick search and I found a few different threads on reddit where other people were having similar findings in like men I look like a porcelain doll or a plastic figure when I take a selfie on the iPhone 10s or 10s max so at first I was like let me get to the bottom of this this is probably some kind of processing thing that I can turn off I can just dive into the menus like on other phones that have Beauty modes right like on Samsung or wall and so maybe I can just toggle that down to zero but of course there's no mention of beauty mode because Apple never admitted to doing any kind of beauty mode instead the only processing they talked about was this smart HDR so I went into the settings I found the smart HDR toggle and I turn that off to see if it made much of a difference and it turns out it didn't so whatever type of processing is happening that whatever Apple is doing on these new phones is kind of outside the realm or extra to the smart HDR functionality and analysis of the photo that's about to be taken so anyhow let's talk about the phones I have in front of me here the far left here I have the iPhone 10 regular previous generation iPhone 10 selfie just shot in this environment as I sit here right now next to that is the 10s max that I've been using and evaluating this one here is in the standard 10s and then on the far side here I have an iPhone 6 because why not let's see what Apple and iPhone selfies look like all the way so I'm assuming you're seeing what I'm seeing here on the 10s Max and the 10s it's like this weird smooth effect going on this photo here is with the smart HDR turned on so for me this is the most aggressive smoothing of the bunch in the cheek area here just the complexion in general is so uniform it's just like this kind of makeup it looks like makeup it looks like a beauty mode to be honest in my interpretation now to the left there believe it or not this is with smart HDR turned off so I was hoping that that would fix the problem it may tone it down a little bit and give you slightly more contrast slightly more shadow but it's nowhere near what we were getting on the iPhone 10 even the iPhone 6 I actually have eyebrows which I promise I have in real life so it looks like whatever processing is going on here with the facial recognition and this smart HDR and then whatever extras are there because it's even happening with smart HDR turned off is resulting in this almost covert beauty mode that's going on this secret beauty mode in what some people on reddit are actually calling Beauty gate but here's the thing I know where this conversation goes you start to say to yourself why would they need a beauty mode who really wants a beauty mode we'll ask yourself white do all those other manufacturers have beauty modes turns out it's a popular feature in certain markets you know maybe people want to be smoothed out so you start to reverse engineer the decision and and try to figure out who apples going after and why they would make such a drastic change in how their selfie camera is processing human beings now the crazy part about this is there's no toggle for me it's like fine if you want to look beautiful and you and you want to have a beauty mode so be it you can turn it off but if you're in the realm of editing and making yourself look a particular way sure toggle that slider up but without having the slider it's like it's like everyone has to accept this beauty look and then what people turn around and this just becomes the new norm it's just like oh I didn't I didn't do anything now there's some other things happening in these images you know these ones look a little more washed out to me shirt for example is I mean it's really not this color it's much darker when I hold this up if I go to take a photo it's doing its analysis of me right now it's putting the makeup on my face I don't know if jack can pick that up I do not look like that that's weird let me snap this photo I look like I'm wearing foundation it's very weird it's so weird my beer is not one color in this it kind of comes out there's an analysis tape but I don't know this might not be strictly software this might not be something that can just be toggled off with the switch I hope that's not the case in fact if I hold my hand in front of my face the whole color temperature of the image it changes and then as it sees my face pop in then I get the rosy cheeks and the smooth complexion so it feels like software I hope it's just software we're gonna have to wait and see so look is this the biggest deal in the world I don't know it depends on how important this front-facing camera is to you do you if you use it to capture your memories or post a billion selfies then you probably want to know about this and like people in the office have said maybe some people actually prefer this image in the middle here on the new 10s and 10's max now that you can see these four separate images from the exact same environment which one do you find to be the most pleasing or which one would you want to post of yourself I want to know down in the comments either way here's my plea to Apple like I don't care if you have this amazing neural processing smart HDR facial analysis stuff going on that's fine that's great but just make it make it an option - turn it off - turn it off completely when you buy the phone that's on by default so if I go back to the camera app you see there's no indication that an HDR photo a smart HDR photo is about to take place the vast majority of people are just gonna pop open this device start snapping selfies and just assume they're as beautiful as they look there it is Beauty gate the hidden beauty mode that you can't turn off you should know that before you purchase one of these if you're a big selfie taker and you want to live your best realist life I don't know you might you might go for an iPhone instead I'm just saying\n"