Amazon Remembers

In December Amazon updated its free iPhone app to include an intriguing experimental feature called Amazon Remembers. The idea is simple; see something you’d like to buy or find out more about and snap a picture using the iPhone app. All your photos are stored on both the mobile app and the desktop site, building a visual wishlist that you can view on your iPhone.

The clever bit involves the app finding a similar product for sale and posts a link to it alongside your photo. Amazon will also email you to let you know that it has found a match ready to buy.

When I tried the feature myself I was impressed with the speed and accuracy of the results, I was sent links to really well matched products within about seven minutes. The feature isn’t as fast as some apps that allow users to scan a barcode, but it is more flexible and less fiddly. The service isn’t fully launched and Amazon is, for the moment, calling it a ‘fun’ feature, but it’s great to use and will doubtless improve over time.