Finding Online Recipes Just Got Easier Thanks to Snapchat’s Newest Feature

published Nov 18, 2021
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This may come as a surprise, but despite the amount of media attention being lobbed at some of its competitors, Snapchat is the second most used app based on worldwide mobile usage. And one of the features which has kept more than 250 million active users engaged in recent months is the new Scan feature.

Introduced in August of this year, Snap Scan allows users to search a variety of items — from dog breeds to plants to wine products. Placed prominently in the app’s camera, the new option has been used by 170 million subscribers since it was introduced, thus helping Snapchat move from a messaging app to a virtual search engine.

Hoping to push its way towards the title as the most used app, the company announced a new partnership with AllRecipes which gives Snap Scan the potential to become a home cook’s best friend. Aptly titled Food Scan, the new feature now gives users the ability to identify over 1,000 ingredients and retrieve relevant recipes as well as Wikipedia pages on the items.

The idea, as AllRecipes presents it, is for home cooks to use the app to figure out creative ways to use ingredients they may already have on hand. Just simply grab an item from your fridge or pantry, place it on a flat surface, point the Snapchat camera at the item and hit scan.

The app will return five relevant listings from AllRecipes.com for which your item of choice can be used. The website cautions that liquids and packaged foods are not yet identifiable through the feature though, but that does indicate that this particular functionality may one day be offered.

The Food Scan feature on Snapchat is currently only available to U.S. users.