iPhone: straight into the room, no app
61%
of mobile visits in the United States come from an iPhone. For a US store, the iPhone path is the main one.
Statcounter, mobile operating systems in the United States, August 2026 (60.68%)Apple builds AR into Safari. It works on any iPhone from iOS 12, which came out in 2018.
On our chair, the customer taps the AR button, Safari asks once "View in AR?", and the chair stands on the floor. Pinch it, and iPhone shows the size. 100% means real size.
Open your own model on an iPhone before launch, pinch it, and look for 100%.
Android: one tap, straight to the camera
10 MB
is the model size Google gives for Android AR. Bigger files may give a poor experience.
Google, Scene Viewer documentation, updated 31 October 2024Google builds AR into Android. It works from Android 7.0, on phones that support Google's AR.
We set it to open straight in the camera. The customer taps once and the product stands on their floor.
Worldwide, two in three mobile visits are on Android. Check your own store's split, then test.
Computer: a QR code to the phone
A computer has no camera to point at the room. So on a computer, the AR button shows a QR code.
The customer scans it with the phone and lands on the same product, ready for AR.
The QR code should open the exact product and version, not your home page.
What the file needs
AR shows the product at real size, in the customer's own room. So small mistakes show. We check these four on every model.
- 01Two files. iPhone needs one kind of file, Android another. Our loafer: 4.85 MB for iPhone, 3.52 MB for Android.
- 02Real size. Our loafer model is 30.1 cm long. That is a size 41 or 42. Only a drawing with measures tells you it matches the size you sell.
- 03Nothing under the product. The loafer came with a flat 62 by 62 cm square under it, for the shadow. In a real room it would float, so we removed it.
- 04Your 3D provider gives you both files. On one bag, AR did not open: the platform the model ran on had AR switched off.
Ask your vendor for both files, and open each on a real phone before launch.
Make AR easy to find and easy to use
87%
of furniture shoppers in the test who came across AR chose not to use it.
Baymard Institute, 15 May 2024In a Baymard test on furniture, most shoppers who saw AR did not use it. Most had a bad AR experience somewhere else before.
Two of the reasons Baymard found sit on your page: weak instructions and a poor model. These three things answer them:
- 01A button that says what happens: "See it in your room".
- 02One line under it: "Tap, then point your phone at the floor."
- 03A model with real detail, at real size. In the room, the customer looks closely.
Clear button, one line of instructions, a model that looks right up close.
What to take away
- 01No app: iPhone and Android open AR from the page, a computer through a QR code.
- 02Ask your vendor for two files at real size, and test both on real phones before launch.
- 03Rule and number: keep each file under 10 MB, the size Google gives for Android, and add one line that says what to tap. In a 2024 Baymard test, 87% of furniture shoppers skipped AR, most after a bad experience elsewhere.