Snapchat Expands Visual Search to Include Food and Wine

Need to Know 

• Fast-growing Snapchat has updated its Scan feature to include food and wine visual search results.
• By scanning their camera on food and wine labels, Snapchat will reveal nutritional information and wine tasting notes.
• The popular photo-sharing app is leaning into brand partnerships, visual search, and augmented reality to keep its user base of 350 million worldwide users engaged.

Analysis

Snapchat’s visual search feature now allows users to scan food and wine labels for nutritional information. Partnerships with health app Yuka and wine app Vivino provide nutritional information and other details with the simple scan of a barcode. 

With the growing popularity of visual search (the use of AI to search for information from the inputting of an image) on a number of platforms like Google and Pinterest, Snapchat is now upgrading its own visual search feature.

The popular photo-messaging app has already used visual search functionality in partnerships with Coca Cola, McDonald’s, and Gucci to unveil exclusive experiences, such as unlocking a new lens or trying on shoes with augmented reality. Now, Snapchat’s Scan feature includes food and wine labels. 

By working with Yuka—an app that provides details about food and nutrition—users can point their Snapchat camera at a food label to see “basic nutritional information and analysis of comparable health benefits.” 

And thanks to information from Vivino, when scanning the label of a wine bottle, users will see “a pop-up card with the price, rating and tasting notes” of the wine. 

You can also use Snapchat’s visual search features to “to identify plants and dog breeds, solve math equations, look up Amazon products and Shazam music.” These search features help to generate engagement beyond its core social features for its 350 million active monthly worldwide users. 

In the third quarter of 2020, Snapchat boosted revenue 52% to $678.7 million—the fastest annual growth in three years.