True mirror online

Updated 15 October 2026How we measure

Last updated 15 October 2026

What the true mirror shows you

Open the mirror and you see your camera un-flipped: your right side on the left of the screen, the way anyone standing in front of you sees it. That is the opposite of your bathroom mirror and of the selfie preview on your phone, which both show you flipped. The label in the corner of the view always says which one you are looking at, and the True / Mirror switch swaps between them, so you can compare the face you know with the face everyone else knows.

Most people find the true view slightly strange at first. Your parting sits on the other side, a smile that pulls up on one side pulls up on the other, and the face can look a little lopsided. Nothing about your face changed; you are seeing it from the side you never see it from. After a minute or two of switching back and forth, the true view starts to look like you.

Freeze holds one frame so you can look at it properly (and turns the camera off). Symmetry split then builds two composites from that frame: your right half with its mirror image, and your left half with its mirror image. Before you freeze, the split shows a dashed centre line to line your nose up with; afterwards, two sliders move the midline and level a tilted head.

How it works

A front camera records you as it sees you, un-flipped. Phones and video-call apps then mirror the preview on purpose, because a mirrored image is what you expect when you move: raise your right hand and the hand on the right side of the screen moves. This page simply shows the camera’s own image without that step. In Mirror mode it applies the flip, exactly like your phone does.

There is no face model and no measurement on this page. The camera feed goes from your camera to a video element in the page and nowhere else. Freezing copies one frame into memory so the page can draw it and build the composites on a canvas; the composites are made by copying each half of that frame and drawing it again flipped. When you leave, the frame is gone. Nothing is recorded, saved or uploaded, and nothing leaves your device. The camera turns off when you freeze, when you press “Turn the camera off”, and when you leave or hide the page.

The tools that do measure your face, such as the face symmetry test, work the same way: the measuring runs in your browser. The methodology page describes the measurements and the privacy page every step of the camera flow.

Which camera it uses

On a phone or tablet the mirror opens the front (selfie) camera; on a laptop, the built-in webcam; on a desktop, whichever webcam your browser offers first. It asks for a 720p picture, which is sharp enough to see your face clearly without slowing older phones down. The first time, your browser asks for permission to use the camera. You can allow it once or for the site, and take it back at any time in the browser’s site settings. The page never asks for the microphone. If the picture looks dark or grainy, that is the camera struggling with low light, not the page: move closer to a window or turn a lamp towards you.

Why you look different in photos than in the mirror

Almost everyone has had the experience: you look fine in the mirror, then a friend’s photo of you looks off. Several things combine, and the true mirror separates the first one from the others.

1. You are used to the flipped version

You see your own face mostly in mirrors, so the mirror image is the version you know. People tend to like what they have seen often, an effect psychologists call mere exposure, first set out by Robert Zajonc in 1968. In 1977, Mita, Dermer and Knight tested it on faces: they photographed people and showed each of them, and a close friend, the true photo and a mirror-image print. The people photographed preferred their mirror image; their friends preferred the true one. Each preferred the version they were used to.

That is why the un-flipped view can feel unflattering at first, and why it stops feeling that way once you have looked at it for a while. Spending a few minutes with the true mirror is a quick way to get used to the face everyone else sees.

2. Your face is not quite symmetrical

No face is a perfect mirror of itself. One eye sits a little higher, one brow arches more, the nose leans slightly, a smile pulls up further on one side. Flipping a face moves all of those to the other side at once, so the flipped and unflipped versions are slightly different faces. The more asymmetric a feature, the more the two versions differ, which is why a side parting or a crooked smile is often the first thing people notice in the true view.

3. The lens is too close

A phone held at arm’s length or closer is near enough to change your proportions. Features nearer the lens look larger: Ward and colleagues calculated that at about 30 cm the nose looks around 30% larger than in a photo taken from 1.5 m, where the effect disappears. Your mirror shows you at twice your distance from it, which flattens things more than a selfie does. For the mirror on this page, hold your phone at arm’s length or put it down at eye level a little further away.

4. Light, angle and expression

A bathroom mirror is usually lit from above and you look into it straight on, with your own relaxed expression. Photos catch you at other angles, in other light and mid-expression. A camera below your face looks up into your nose and jaw; one above makes the forehead larger. These have nothing to do with flipping, but they add to the sense that photos don’t look like you.

The symmetry split, and what it does and doesn’t tell you

The split builds what researchers call chimeric faces: one face made of two right halves, one of two left halves. They have been used in face research for decades. Kowner, for example, showed people ordinary portraits next to symmetric composites built this way and found that the slight asymmetry of ordinary faces did not make them less attractive; the composites were not preferred.

So treat the two composites as a magnifying glass, not a verdict. They show clearly which way your face differs: one composite is usually a little wider, one has a higher brow line, one a fuller jaw. But they also exaggerate. Any head tilt, a nose that leans by a millimetre, or light from one side gets doubled, so the two composites can look like different people even for a fairly symmetric face. For the best result:

1. Face the camera straight on, with light from the front, and keep your head level.
2. Line your nose up with the dashed centre line, relax your face, and press Freeze.
3. Drag the midline slider until the line runs through the middle of your nose and upper lip.
4. If your eyes aren’t level, use the straighten slider until they are.

For a number instead of a picture, the face symmetry test compares 220 mirror pairs of points across your face after correcting for head pose, and tells you where the two sides differ most. Research reviewed by Gillian Rhodes links facial symmetry to attractiveness, but the link is modest, and the small asymmetries every face has are a long way from what people notice. The facial symmetry guide explains what is typical.

True mirror, online mirror, or your phone’s camera?

People search for an “online mirror” for different reasons, and the right setting depends on which:

• Checking your face, hair or makeup before a call or going out. Use the True view: it shows you what people will actually see, including which side your parting falls on.
• Doing your makeup, shaving or fixing your hair. Use the Mirror view. Your hands move the way you expect in a mirror, which is much easier for fine work.
• Before a video call. Most call apps show you mirrored but send the true image to everyone else, so text on your shirt reads backwards to you and correctly to them. The True view shows you what they get.
• No mirror nearby. Either view works; the camera is your mirror.

On a laptop the camera sits above the screen, so you are looking slightly down into it; on a phone, hold it at eye level. Both give a fairer view than a camera looking up from below your chin.

Getting the clearest view

• Light from the front. Sit facing a window or a lamp. Light from above shadows your eyes; light from one side makes your face look more asymmetric than it is.
• Distance. Arm’s length at least. Closer than that, your nose looks larger and your ears smaller.
• Eye level. Raise the phone or laptop so the camera is level with your eyes.
• Look at the lens, not the screen, when you freeze, so your eyes look straight ahead in the frame.

Is the true view exactly what other people see?

It is much closer than a mirror, but it is still a picture, and people don’t see you as a picture. Three differences remain:

• Movement. Other people see your face moving: talking, blinking, changing expression. A frozen frame catches one moment, often a slightly odd one. That is one reason a single photo can look less like you than you look in person.
• Depth. Someone in front of you sees with two eyes from a little distance, and sees your face from slightly different angles as you both move. A camera has one lens in one place, so your face is flattened into a single view.
• Distance. In conversation people are usually a metre or more away. A phone at arm’s length is closer than that, so features nearest the lens still look slightly larger than they do to someone across a table.

So the un-flipped camera answers one specific question well: which way round your face is, and how it looks from the front without the mirror’s swap. For a still photo that looks most like you in person, stand further back, use the phone’s 2× or 3× zoom, and take several frames rather than one.

Can I save the picture?

Not from this page, on purpose: it has no save button and keeps nothing, so a frozen frame disappears when you leave. If you want to keep one, take a screenshot with your phone or computer while the frame is frozen. The screenshot is saved by your own device, like any other, and is never sent to us. If you want to compare yourself over time, the measuring tools are a better fit than photos, because they correct for head pose and distance, which two photos rarely match.

From looking to measuring

The true mirror shows your face; the other tools measure it. One 30-second scan gives your face shape, your symmetry score and your attractiveness score, all measured on your device. The Full Face Report ($14.99, paid once) breaks the score into its components, including symmetry by region, and shows what would move it.

Keep reading

• Facial symmetry explained
• Face shapes chart: the seven types

Tools that measure your face (one short scan answers all of them):

• Face symmetry test: your symmetry score out of 100 and where the two sides differ most.
• Face shape detector: your face shape out of six, with how confident the match is.
• Attractiveness test: an attractiveness score from 1.0 to 10.0, with its tier.