When people talk about augmented reality (AR), they often think of games like the massive hit back in 2016, Pokemon GO. This was a lot of fun back in the day as it kind of introduced AR to the general public and it was this cutting edge new technology. Today, AR is used for a lot more “real life” things and it will probably be used even more in the future.
One of the coolest examples of AR I have seen is IKEA’s AR app, called IKEA Place. The app let’s you point your phone at for example your living room, and allows you to drop a virtual sofa, table, or lamp right into the space (IKEA, 2017). Next to the visualization, it also allows users to scale the furniture to its actual size so that users won’t end up buying a table that looks perfect online, but in reality blocks your front door.
For IKEA, this is not just a fun and fancy tech experiment. It is a smart information strategy move. The users get better information before they buy something, like how a product fits, matches or clashes in their living room. Next to this, IKEA also installed a chatbot in the app which helps users navigate through the technology. It tells users where to aim the camera and gently corrects users when they are not using the app properly (DesignRush, 2025). This chatbot helps make it accessible and usable to everyone, even if they are not that handy with technology. IKEA Place reduces uncertainty for consumers, builds trust and also lowers the amount of returns IKEA has to handle, which saves IKEA money and probably headaches.
But IKEA is definitely not alone. AR is popping up pretty much everywhere. I have seen AR that lets you try on sneakers virtually and I even read about AR in healthcare, where surgeons overlay scans during operations. But the app from IKEA is a nice example of AR going mainstream, which probably a lot of regular people would actually use and not just tech enthousiasts.
Now I still wonder: how far do we actually want AR to go? I believe it is handy for furniture shopping, but what would happen when every store pushes AR overlays at us? Imagine discounts popping up in the streets or ads floating in the air. These things could turn useful information into irrelevant and overwhelming noise.
Personally, I love AR when it actually solves a “real world” problem, just like the app from IKEA does, but I fear for a future world where reality feels like one big pop-up ad.
So what do you think? How far do you want AR to go? Would you use AR for everyday routines, or do you see it more as a “nice thing to have”?
References:
DesignRush. (2025, July 24). IKEA Place’s eCommerce App Design Brings The Future To The 21st Century. DesignRush. Retrieved from https://www.designrush.com/best-designs/apps/ikea-place
IKEA. (2017, September 12). IKEA launches IKEA Place – a new app that allows people to virtually place furniture in their home. IKEA Newsroom. Retrieved from https://www.ikea.com/global/en/newsroom/innovation/ikea-launches-ikea-place-a-new-app-that-allows-people-to-virtually-place-furniture-in-their-home-170912/
