Technology has come a long way since the first touchscreen phone, and complicated features like augmented reality aren’t outside the realm of everyday tech anymore. Google is well aware of this, and is now partnering with Swedish home furnishings and furniture brand Ikea to make all the latter’s products viewable in AR directly in Google Search results.
Ikea has an extensive catalog of thousands of products, and it can be quite challenging to find the perfect one that fits in your living spaces. Afew retailers supportviewing their products in 3D directly in Search results, and9to5Googlereports Ikea is the latest addition to the list. If you look up any product from the brand on Search for Android, you’ll now see a prompt sayingView in 3D.
If you tap that, a photorealistic 3D render of the product appears on-screen, and you can use swipe gestures to see the item from all angles. Just above theVisitbutton is a dedicated option toView in your space. If you use this tool, the Ikea product opens up in AR. You can then drop the life-sized furniture into your room and move around it, see if it fits in a spot, and verify the colors gel with your decor.
UnlikeGoogle’s AR Playground creations, you cannot scale the AR models for Ikea products, and that isn’t entirely a bad thing. It eliminates the possibility of user error, and provides a consistent, reliable experience for everyone checking product fit.
Interestingly, this isn’t the Swedish brand’s first rodeo with AR tech. Way back in 2018, Ikea developed a solution in-house, distributed as the Ikea Place app. Wetested it out and were quite pleasedwith the results. The app is stillavailable on APKMirrorand the Apple App Store, but it came and went on Android in 2019 with no one taking notice.
With Google’s success in making AR a household utility through tools likeLens, it is nice to see major retailers offering AR options that might save you the effort and time spent to visit a retail location.
