Snapchat could soon help users buy things on Amazon, debuts extensive library of lenses
- Wednesday, July 11th, 2018
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Snapchat is reportedly working on a visual product search feature that will enable users to purchase the things they Snap.
The product search, codenamed ‘Eagle’, can be found buried in the code for Snapchat’s Android app, according to TechCrunch, which was tipped off about the code by app researcher Ishan Agarwal.
The feature will enable users to take a picture of an item, barcode, or song, and then ‘press and hold’ to identify what has been Snapped. This is done through sending data to partners like Amazon and Shazam. In Amazon’s case, users will have the option to be directed to the relevant product listing on the eCommerce platform.
Snapchat’s work with Shazam dates back to 2016 – when the music identification platform was integrated into the social app, giving users the means to tap and hold to identify songs playing nearby via an audio search. From here, users are able to view the song on Shazam, send the song to a friend, or follow the artist on Snapchat. Eagle expands this feature to offer visual search in a similar way.
Elsewhere, Snapchat is opening up the more than 100,00 lenses created in Lens Studio to users via a feature called ‘Lens Explorer’.
With Lens Explorer, the community lenses created within the Studio desktop app will be discoverable in Snapchat’s main lens carousel, giving Snapchatters a load of new lenses to be creative with.
For the time being, Lens Explorer is only being rolled out slowly to iOS users. These Snapchatters will be able to tap a new smiley face icon that appears when the lens carousel is active then tap a Lens tile to unlock a lens and be taken to the Snap Camera. In addition, users can browse through featured Our Stories featuring Lens Studio Lenses and swipe up to unlock them.