Snapchat to introduce Snap Scan on the homescreen for accessing AR-based experiences

From August 26, 2021, Snapchat is placing its new and improved Scan feature on the application's home screen, which can now identify food, plants, suggest AR lenses, solve mathematical problems and much more. In the past, Snap (Snapchat's parent company) has also partnered with companies including Photomatch and Shazam to introducing new scanning capabilities in the application. The Snap Scan feature is a step towards visual searching, making Snapchat a strong visual search engine. 

Snapchat places Scan on the home screen, will allow users to search visually

The new Snap Scan feature will be available to iOS users first, begging to roll out soon with the latest app update. The new feature will also be available to Android users around the globe over the next few weeks. In order to experience the latest Snap Scan feature, users will have to download the latest Snapchat application on their smartphones. Once the update is available to a user, the Snapchat camera icon on the home screen will be replaced with the Snap Scan feature. It will enable users to quickly access the AR-based visual search on Snapchat, which is a combination of filters and lenses used to explore the surroundings. 

Snap Camera will be replaced with Snap Scan on the homescreen

The Snap Scan feature will be available in between the other home screen shortcuts in the application, which are Snap Map, Chat, Stories and Spotlight. The Snap Scan feature will allow users to access AR-camera shortcuts, shopping suggestions from the home screen of the application and much more. Previously, users were required to open Lenses and press the Scan icon to use the visual search capabilities.

Snapchat has already partnered with companies like Shazam and Photomath, which allowed users to scan a song that is playing in the background or solve mathematical problems by scanning them through the camera. The Snap Scan now comes with a dog scanner that allows users to identify over 400 breeds of dogs. The feature will also be able to discover the model, make, reviews and price of over 400 cars, along with the capability to scan over a million food products and display nutrition ratings directly on the home screen.