Amazon has unveiled Lens Livea new feature that transforms your smartphone camera into a powerful shopping assistant. By simply pointing the camera at an item, users can instantly view product listings from Amazon’s massive marketplace. This real-time visual shopping tool is currently rolling out on the Amazon Shopping app for iOS.
The technology uses AI-powered object detection to recognize items in your surroundings. As you pan across a room or zoom in on a product, Amazon’s system instantly pulls up similar products available on its platform. Results appear in a swipeable carousel with options to add items directly to your cart or wishlist, streamlining the buying process.
Amazon has also tied Lens Live to Rufusits in-house AI shopping assistant. Rufus helps by summarizing product details, highlighting specifications, and answering questions like “Is this lamp dimmable?” or “Will this chair fit in a small flat?” This feature makes browsing faster, smarter, and more interactive compared to traditional keyword-based searches.
Lens Live is Amazon’s strategic answer to Google’s Gemini Livewhich also uses AI to scan environments and provide information. However, Amazon’s approach is more commerce-driven, placing a “buy” button front and center to turn discovery into instant purchase opportunities.
Amazon already offered visual search through photo uploads, barcode scans, and image matching. But Lens Live goes beyond snapshotsproviding a continuous, interactive shopping experience. Instead of searching item by item, shoppers can wave their cameras around to discover multiple products in real time.
Currently exclusive to iOS users, Lens Live is expected to expand to more devices soon. By merging AI, visual recognition, and instant purchasingAmazon is making shopping more seamless — and potentially more tempting. For consumers, this means effortless product discovery; for Amazon, it opens the door to increased impulse buying.
