The Houzz app has been updated with ARCore support following Google‘s initial announcement from March 20 that it was expanding the reach of ARCore with more applications that contain the technology. For Houzz and its app, the added support for ARCore means that users will be able to place virtual representations of furniture and other home decor items anywhere in their home to see how they would look. This is the exact same kind of feature that Lowe’s launched with its app yesterday and works in the same fashion. You find a piece of furniture you like in the Houzz app, and you can see how it would look if you purchased that item and brought it home.
To access this function users will need to open the View in My Room 3D tool that was added to the Houzz app back in 2017. Worth noting though, is that the app will need to be updated and on the latest version as the update contains the ARCore capabilities for the tool. You’ll also need to have a smartphone that supports ARCore, like any of Google’s Pixel devices, before you can utilize the feature.
For those that have the compatible phone and the latest version of the app with the feature available, any items that are placed in the home virtually through the augmented reality view will be true to scale according to Houzz, so you’ll be able to gauge things perfectly, meaning you’ll be able to tell if that sofa is too long for the space you wanted to put it. For Houzz, adding this functionality was likely a no-brainer, as it mentions that people who used the View in My Room 3D tool were eleven times more likely to make a purchase, and that number may only go up now that the tool has been updated with support for ARCore.