Amazon’s new AR tool lets you fill a room with multiple virtual items

Shoppers who go online in search of furniture may be interested in a new offering from Amazon.

The e-commerce giant is rolling out a new augmented reality (AR) tool, currently available only on iOS, that lets you virtually place multiple furniture items in a room in your home so you can see how they look.

The feature, called Room Decorator, builds on an existing Amazon offering from 2017 called AR View that lets you virtually place a single item in a room to get a better idea of whether it’ll fit.

As detailed by TechCrunch, Room Decorator has the advantage of letting you overlay high-quality images of multiple items in a room. All you do is head to Amazon’s shopping app, select any furniture item that has a “view in your room” button beside it — thousands are available at launch — and then view them in the room via a smartphone camera.

Also, unlike AR View, Room Decorator lets you use the feature when you’re away from home by utilizing an image of your room that you took earlier.

Room Decorator works with selected furniture items from both Amazon and third-party sellers, with new items being added all the time. As you’d expect with such a feature, shoppers will see recommended items alongside their main choice, all of which can be moved around the room. If you like the item, you can drop it in the shopping cart while you’re still in Room Decorator.

The new tool is a variation on Amazon’s web-based Showroom feature, which lets you fill a provided space — though not your own room — with various furniture items to see how they look together.

Furniture shopping seems like an effective use of AR, with features like Room Decorator hopefully enabling shoppers to avoid the hassle of buying something only to return it later because it just doesn’t look right. And Amazon isn’t the only one with such a feature, with furniture giant IKEA, for example, also offering its own AR app for the same purpose.

Room Decorator will be added via an update to Amazon’s mobile app starting today, with all users expected to have it within the next few weeks.