Amazon Brings Augmented Reality Shopping To Its iOS App Thanks To ARKit

Amazon has become a sort of one-stop-shop when it comes to buying just about anything you can imagine from clothing to furniture to electronics to food to car parts. The company is really looking to enhance the shopping experience by allowing customers to see how certain products will look in their home before they purchase them. To achieve this, Amazon has launched a new feature for its iOS app that is called AR View.

AR View works in a myriad of product categories including furniture, electronics, toys, games, home décor, and others. This new AR View feature is much better than the AR Stickers that Amazon offered previously for some products. Those had large white borders that made them look like stickers a child would play with, limiting their usefulness (these are still available). Augmented reality shopping is a big push for many online retailers, as being able to see what the product looks like in person and in your home is a big selling point for many.

The AR View feature of the Amazon iOS app uses Apple's ARKit SDK intended to make it easier for developers to bring augmented reality functionality to their mobile apps. This implementation does come with a caveat of only working with iPhone 6s or higher devices that are running iOS 11. 

To use AR View on the Amazon iOS app, you can tap the camera icon in the app. You'll then find the AR View option, after which you can swipe through and find things from categories you might want to see in your home. Categories include living room, electronics, toys and games, home décor, bedroom, kitchen, and the app offers a top picks section too.

Once the AR View is launched you can move and rotate items to fit them into your space and view them in 360-degrees.