Snapchat is rolling out a major upgrade to its Scan feature and moving it so that it’s placed front and center in the application. As first reported by The Verge, the Scan feature can be used to identify a range of things in the real world, like clothes or dog breeds.”
Snapchat says that its integrated Scan feature, which first started two years ago as a way to “Scan a Snapcode” for unlocking AR experiences, has undergone a major overhaul. Most notably, the feature has been moved to the main camera interface in the Snapchat application for iOS.
The Snapchat application opens directly to the camera view every time, so placing the new Scan button on that interface will make a dramatic difference in adoption. As The Verge explains, one of the key changes here is also something called camera shortcuts. Eva Zhan, Snap’s head of camera product, helps explain the feature:
Another core pillar of Scan is what Snap calls camera shortcuts. It works by recommending a combo of a camera mode, soundtrack, and Lense. So if you point the camera at the sky, Lenses specifically designed to work with the sky will be shown alongside a song clip and color filter, letting you apply all the changes at once. According to Zhan, Snap is working to add camera shortcuts to its TikTok rival Spotlight, potentially letting the viewer of a video quickly jump into their camera with the same configuration used to create the video they just watched.
In terms of detection, Scan is also to recognize a handful of new things, including dog breeds, plants, wine, cars, and food nutrition info. There’s also a specific focus on shopping and clothes:
Scan’s biggest new addition is a shopping feature that was built by Snap and aided by its recent acquisition of Screenshop, an app that lets you upload screenshots of clothing and shop for similar items. Scan can recommend similar clothes based on what you’re looking at and let you buy clothes you discover. Scan’s shopping feature will also soon be added to the camera roll section of Snapchat called Memories, letting people shop for clothes based on what they have saved from their camera or screenshots.
Check out the full report at The Verge for additional details on Snapchat’s new Scan AR features. You can watch the video below for more as well. The feature is rolling out in the Snapchat for iOS application starting today.
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