Picture messaging platform Snapchat could soon be expanding beyond its current social media offerings and into a brand new market in a bid to keep users from straying to rival networks.
The company is set to test a new feature that would see the platform move into the online shopping sector. The feature would allow users to scan, identify and then purchase an item just by taking a picture of it through the app’s camera.
The feature would essentially be a visual search engine and would work by sending the data captured on the photograph to Amazon, Shazam and numerous other partners to provide a link to the user with a number of listings for where they could then purchase the product. It was first spotted by a researcher who found code within the Android version of the Snapchat app.
The move would presumably see Snapchat take its cut of any profits gained from purchases that originated from the picture network.
This is not the first leap the company has made into online shopping as such. Earlier in the summer, it launched a feature that would allow US users to purchase tickets to sporting and musical events directly through the app.
Los Angeles Football Club allowed users to buy tickets to its MLS fixture with DC United through a link advertised in its story or via a Snapcode on its site.
Snapchat has consistently developed a number of new features to keep itself relevant and to stay ahead of some of its competitors, starting with its original and most iconic feature – the disappearing message. As these have come to be taken by rivals, it has come up with a number of new features such as the Storyboard and augmented reality lenses.
Many of these features that Snapchat has developed have been adopted by the likes of Facebook and Instagram, with Facebook infamously accused of copying everything it does. This led to company CEO Evan Spiegel to joke that Facebook should copy its privacy policies after its Cambridge Analytica incident.
As news of this unreleased feature emerges, Snapchat has officially launched its Lens Explorer – a new feature through which userscan discover thousands of augmented reality lenses to test and use in snaps to their friends. These lenses have been created by fellow users and are available through the Lens Studio, a standalone app introduced last year.
With Snapchat seemingly looking at expansion into different markets, it could be a way for it to further incorporate and promote business use, something which has yet to take off in the same way as it has on rival networks such as Instagram.
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