Home Decor App Houzz Expands Augmented Reality Catalog to Include Virtual Floor Tile

Apps that can display virtual furniture in the home are one of the most popular applications of mobile AR today, but Houzz has decided to raise the stakes with its latest update.

On Tuesday, the company rolled out a floor tile AR feature to its iOS and Android apps.

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Using the same View In My Room 3D feature that the app uses to preview furniture on floors and paintings on walls, customers can scan for horizontal surfaces, mark the borders of the floor, view their chosen tile options, and purchase items from within the app. In addition, users can capture images to share with others or store on idea boards.

Houzz

Houzz

Houzz

Houzz

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"There is a stark difference between trying to imagine how a tile sample will look throughout a room and being able to view the room's entire floor covered in the new tile using AR," said Sally Huang, head of visual technologies at Houzz.

"We continue to make AR-enabled shopping even more immersive and useful on Houzz. Our View in My Room 3D tool now helps people discover, select and buy the best tile for their space, in the correct quantity, all within the Houzz app."

Houzz

Since launching its View in My Room 3D feature in 2017, Houzz has amassed more than one million products in its 3D product catalog. The company reports more than two million users have viewed products in AR, and those who did were 11 times more likely to buy products.

The newly updated Houzz app joins an increasingly crowded space filled with AR-powered home decor apps including Ikea, Amazon, Target, and Pottery Barn.

But even if Houzz isn't a household name like some of its aforementioned competitors, with its wide variety of product visualization capabilities, it has shaped up to be an ideal tool for home improvement and remodeling via the powers of immersive computing.

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Cover image via Houzz