Amazon's app now lets you experience augmented reality.

It has begun leveraging Apple's ARKit, a technology that essentially makes it easier for developers to add augmented reality (AR) components to their apps and software. As a result, you can now use Amazon's primary shopping app to virtually place items in your actual house before you buy them on Amazon.com. By overlaying virtual products onto the real-world, the app is delivering an AR experience.

Here's how the feature works.

What is Amazon AR view?

Amazon's app for iOS devices has been updated with a new feature: AR View. It lets you browse through thousands of items listed on Amazon.com - things like home decor, electronics, office products, toys, and games - and place them in your home or wherever you want to see them. Using the feature, you can overlay, resize, and rotate the item to see how it will look and fit in real life.

How does Amazon AR view work?

Select AR View

  • Update and open the Amazon app on your iOS device.
  • Tap on the camera icon in the search bar and then swipe up.
  • You will then see different modes. Tap the AR View option.
  • You will see products in different categories. Tap one to try it.

See how items look and fit

After you select an item to try, tap on the live camera view to place it in your home or space. You can use one finger to swipe and subsequently move the item around. You can also use two fingers to rotate it. Tap the capture button to take a photo of the item if you want to save it.

Which items can you try?

You can try "thousands of items" on Amazon.com, according to Amazon, including Amazon's own devices, as well as different things for sale on its site. In a demo video, Amazon showed a user trying AR View with a slow cooker, speaker, coffee machine, and more.

Is Amazon AR View free?

Yes. The feature is free to use.

Who can use Amazon AR View?

The feature is available to anyone with an iPhone 6S device or higher, as long as it is running iOS 11. Now, Google has a similar platform to Apple's ARKit, so it's possible that Amazon's Android app could be updated with AR View sometime in the future. 

Want to know more?

Check out Pocket-lint's ARKit guides for more AR-enabled iOS apps: