Amazon purchases can now appear in your house before you even buy them

Amazon shoppers can now use augmented reality to see what potential purchases would look like in their own homes.

Owners of an iPhone 6S or later, running iOS 11, were treated to the new feature on Wednesday (1 November) through the Amazon shopping app. The feature runs through Apple's ARKit, which lets developers use the camera and motion sensor date to map the world around it. It can also predict horizontal planes in a room, a crucial addition for placing furniture.

All users need to do is open the Amazon app, click on the camera icon in the top left corner and select from several categories. Products compatible will then be listed and shoppers can place them anywhere in the house.

The new feature is not available to Android users. Amazon would need to rebuild the software through Google's ARCore for compatibility.

Ikea has already released a similar feature for its app, however Amazon is promising to include more than just furniture. Electronics, cooking appliances and toys are all expected to feature as well.

AR rose to prominence last year when viral mobile game Pokemon Go placed its pocket monsters in real world scenarios. As of August, the game had been downloaded 750 million times. AR is a major headline feature of Apple's newest mobiles, the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X.