Snapchat is pushing an update to its UI with an aim to push AR features. The company is replacing the camera icon with a Scan shortcut that lets users access AR-based identification features.
The original camera icon will still appear when you move from the home screen to other sections like Chat, Stories, Spotlight, and Snap Map.
Scan feature is really useful. It also shows how the company wants to be more than just a messaging app. Scan makes the app a visual search engine that lets users find millions of AR effects, scan real-world objects to find more info about them, and more.
Earlier this year at its developer conference, Snap previewed how this scan feature can detect dog breeds, plants, wine, cars, and food nutrition info. This feature can also be used for shopping where you can perform visual searches to find similar clothes. This feature is powered by Screenshop that Snap acquired recently.
Snapchat’s Scan feature is almost similar to Google Lens that debuted back in 2017. Snap also confirmed that the feature is already being used by more than 170 million people on a monthly basis.
Snap also promises that the feature will keep getting better over time. The company is trying to make it more accurate in identifying things and adding new categories of objects the feature can detect. The company also confirmed that it is not using any of the Scan data for ad targeting. Well, At least for now.
Snap confirmed that the changes will begin rolling out globally to all iOS users. Android users will also get these changes over the next few weeks.
