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Pinterest helps you to see how your pinned furnishings would look in your house

Pinterest is no stranger to augmented reality (AR) technology, offering features for trying on clothes and makeup. But now the social media platform has taken the next step; Now you can try furniture in your home with AR. Who wouldn’t like to see how a sofa looks in a room before deciding on one?

The new Try On for Home Decor feature expands on Pinterest’s existing AR capabilities. In the app, when you browse the Shop tab, you’ll see a “Tap to place” option, which allows you to virtually place furniture in your space using your device’s camera.

Pinterest says it has worked with US retailers including Crate & Barrel, CB2, Walmart, West Elm and Wayfair to offer the feature. At launch, more than 80,000 pins will be available in AR.

Unfortunately, the company hasn’t said when it will start rolling out the feature internationally, although we suspect it will be in the near future.

If the AR furniture concept sounds a little familiar, that’s because we’ve seen something similar before. In 2017, Ikea released Ikea Place, which allows shoppers to virtually place furniture in their homes using AR.

Of course, Ikea’s app only features the company’s own products, while Pinterest works with multiple retailers. Pinterest can also offer suggestions based on previous searches and your pins, which is another feature that Ikea’s app trumps.

Pinterest says that 9 out of 10 users come to Pinterest for information and inspiration on their home decor shopping spree. With so many users using the social app (if you can still call it that) for home design, it’s no wonder the company decided to extend Try On to home furnishings.

We have yet to see AR technology becoming mainstream, although many companies are already working on the technology – we wrote about the future of AR back in 2009. Trying out furniture is probably one of the more useful uses of AR right now, but it’s still not quite as comprehensive as you might like. At least you can see if you can still squeeze that extra coffee table in after all.

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