Amazon adds augmented reality to its app

Amazon added new functionality to its mobile app: augmented reality. With “AR-view”, consumers can see thousands of items in their own house prior to a purchase.

Accessible breakthrough for AR?

A selection of thousands of products across furniture, household materials and interior design items will come to life in consumers’ homes thanks to the app. A 3D simulation will appear and allows potential customers to see how it would fit “in real life”.

It needs to be said that the app mainly focuses on displaying the actual size of the items, because there are still rather unclear and low res. Apple’s ARKit technology powers this application, which also limits its features to Apple devices at this point.

Nevertheless, this could become an online shopper’s first introduction to augmented reality. IKEA launched a similar AR application several years ago, designed to transfer its furniture into customers’ homes, but failed to engage a lot of customers. With his new functionality, Amazon will become one of the first to have an easy-to-use and useful AR application.