Alipay adds beauty filter to facial recognition payments

Alipay is getting filters to make people who pay via facial recognition look more attractive. According to parent company Alibaba, the beauty filters are being implemented to address complaints from customers who find it annoying to see their face on a screen.

The new functionality was announced on the Chinese social network Weibo, TechCrunch noted. Stores that support payment by scanning the customer’s face will have filters to make customers look more beautiful on screen. That should be done within a week.

With the change, Alipay says it caters to customers who find it annoying to see their face on a screen when they try to approve a payment via a face scan. Some customers have reported that the face scanner makes them look uglier, making payment uncomfortable, as in many cases their face is also visible to other customers in the store.

Paying with your face is on the rise in China. In addition to Alipay, competitor WeChat also offers the possibility to authorize payments via a scan of the face.