Feeling a little foody? If so, then it’s great news if you also happen to be on Snapchat! Snap is adding a new element to its ‘Scan’ feature that it aptly (and creatively) names ‘Food Scan’. Partnering with cooking site Allrecipes, Snapchatters can now find recipe recommendations by simply scanning over whatever ingredients they have available. Talk about fast food!
As shown in Snap’s official Tweet, this new integration will supply users with recipe recommendations based on whatever food items they are able to scan using the Snap camera. Same with how QR scanners work, all you need to do is line the item up with the Snap camera’s view, and press and hold on the screen to scan. After a few seconds, you should have some relevant recipe matches displayed.
Functional Food-stagram
This addition to Snap Scan really plays a more active role in helping you maintain specific lifestyle diets, while simultaneously expanding your culinary choices. Additional options such as ‘Nutrition Scan’ also give you further insight into the health considerations associated with packaged foods. It very much turns snap into a semi-semi-heath and wellness app.
Especially during the wake of the pandemic, health really did become wealth ever since mid-2020. Home food hacks became a thing, and meal-kit delivery services like Blue Apron saw significant growth over the past year. While scanning individual ingredients won’t mean that you can produce full meals, what’s important is that you at least have an idea as to what options, and healthier ones at that, you can work towards.
‘Food Scan’ also functions to benefit recipe discovery as it returns certain food facts from wikipedia that lets you learn more about what you’re eating. Such an informative secondary function can also help develop healthier habits and mindsets, given that you are readily supplied with useful information.
For drink aficionados, Snapchat has also been refining its Scan function so as to be able to procure wine info simply by scanning labels. Not only that, but you can also use the Snap camera to scan and get more information on dog breeds, music, and even get product recommendations by scanning certain items! Now that’s what you call an expansion!
Though ‘Scan’ hasn’t received as much hype as its trend-leading AR features, Snap’s latest Partner Summit event back in May reports that over 170 million people now use the ‘Scan’ feature monthly.
The Wrap
Obviously, Snapchat wants to put more focus on its ‘Scan’ function, which is honestly a very logical move seeing as how so much insight and convenience is gleaned from simply scanning over objects. Eventually, Snapchat might even be able to bridge Scan functionality with its AR technology, bringing about a new era of seamless information connectivity. In fact, this amalgamation of functions might come sooner than expected, especially now that Snapchat is hard at work to further its AR Spectacles Project.
Snap notes:
“Through continued development of Scan, we’re building the next generation of personal computing around the consumer perspective, with information and entertainment immediately accessible as people connect with friends, discover the world, and get things done.”
Snapchat right now is the closest we get to having real-life Iron-Man shades – if you want to get more information simply by looking at things, put them on. It may sound comically-humorous, but the real-life applications of such are vast. Let’s wait and hope that Snap successfully delivers the next generation of AR wearables.
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