Getting more baking soda is now just a photograph away.
A new update to Amazon’s iOS app includes “Flow” — a feature that can detect items that users point their camera towards, and then let them add the items to their Amazon shopping cart for purchase.
The change means that Amazon’s mobile app will become even more useful for “showrooming,” the practice of browsing for products at more expensive physical retailers before buying them online for a lower price.
Amazon has offered the technology through its Flow stand-alone iOS app, but it hasn’t made the jump to Amazon’s main app until today.
For example, if people need more laundry detergent, softener and bleach, they can switch their Amazon app into Flow mode, and then point their phone’s camera at each item. They’ll get added to a list that users can flip through and add to their cart.
“Once you have added that box of garbage bags or baby wipes, just keep moving your phone over other packaged goods you need to restock and the Amazon app recognizes the product and saves it into your search history,” Sam Hall, Amazon’s Vice President of Mobile said in a press release. “You can search items lined up on the counter, stored on a shelf, or pick them out of a cupboard, taking care of your shopping needs in seconds.”
Users can download Amazon’s mobile app from the iOS App Store.
