Earlier this year, popular Swedish furniture store chain Ikea announced that it would be working with Apple to create an AR app that enables people to test how a piece of furniture will look in their home before making the purchase. Now, the app has become a reality.

Ikea Place, built on Apple’s ARKit, is said to automatically scale products – based on room dimensions – with 98 per cent accuracy. The first release of the app will see more than 2,000 products available to find the best space for, and, in future, the app will play a key role in the launch of new product lines.

“Ikea Place makes it easier to make buying decisions in your own place, to get inspired and try many different products, styles and colours in real-life settings with a swipe of your finger,” said Michael Valdsgaard, leader of digital transformation at Inter Ikea Systems. “Augmented reality and virtual reality will be a total game changer for retail in the same way as the internet. Only this time, much faster.”

The initial 2,000 items will focus on larger pieces of living room furniture. This will include all sofas, all armchairs, all footstools, and all coffee tables, as well as top-selling storage solutions.

Ikea Place is available for free from the App Store for those running iOS 11. To use, customers have to scan the floor of their home in the app, then browse through the list of products, select a product, and move it into the position that they want it to be.