The spot for a definitive camera company is open and Snapchat is moving quickly to fill it. The company has teamed up with Amazon to deliver the unique Snapchat AR Visual Search. Rivaling Pinterest and above all, Instagram to an AR social commerce face off, the Amazon partnership brings a welcoming shopping feature to Android Snapchat users. The project codename? Eagle.
With visual product search, Android camera is expanding its view. Through Snapchat eyes, users will be able to scan objects (products) and see their names, tags, prices, or whether they are available through Amazon Prime. Speaking of which, Snapchat AR visual search users can also tap directly to the Amazon listing of the scanned object. It means that every one of nearly 190 million daily users can point at an image or barcode, hold their cameras pointed for long enough, and head directly to Amazon reviews. Snapchat camera effectively makes every product an ad for and of itself.
The feature is at its most useful with users who don’t know the name of products they are seeing. Snapchat’s part of the deal is to categorize the scanned object, while Amazon will recognize logos or any other distinctive marks lurking around. AR camera visual search will also have unique language of Snapchat camera, therefore overcoming any potential language barrier among buying customers.
The new Snapchat AR visual search program is perhaps a response to Instagram’s shopping tools of late. Pinterest too has come out with its Lens search app, making the social commerce a new track to be won. The Snapchat’s take on it, courtesy of one Jeff Bezos, is perhaps the most ambitious among the racers. The program is still in its experimental phase available to a selected number of U.S. users. But given the idea’s appeal and technological prowess and lure behind it, it is certain to spread soon.
Both companies were unwilling to come out with financial terms of their partnership. Snapchat will either act as a glorified affiliate earning a referral fee, or simply be grateful for having such a powerful platform as Amazon offers. Be that as it may, the duo seems to be a perfect match considering their current business positions. Amazon is looking to spread its social networks, while Snapchat is aiming towards becoming the camera company. It seeks to offer its lenses as a window to a more refined AR world, and e-commerce camera search is a move up towards this vision.
With the likes of Shopify AR commerce around, Snap Inc. has long tried to develop its better version. Snapchat AR visual search has its unborn sibling in this year’s unsuccessful acquisition partnership with Blippar startup. That failing, the Amazon tie-up shows that Snap was not willing to give up on the idea that lightly. That is where the money and future of shopping is, studies are uniformly agreeing.
The users are the ones to cheer though. Snapchat AR visual search brings us one step closer to a more realized Augmented Reality well-being. And it also removes the annoyance of not knowing a product’s name and address. See, Snap, tap; it’s that easy.
