Kim Kardashian is no stranger to the app world. She’s got her own app in the App Store, as well as her own mobile game, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. Kardashian has also been known to lend her name to the occasional tech startup, however, and the Screenshop app is the latest to gain that distinction.
Kim K was spotted promoting the app on her Instagram Story over the weekend, and it begged the question: Does Screenshop really work as well as she says it does?
What is Screenshop?
Screenshop, whose tagline is “Shop your inspiration,” is an app that lets you use a screenshot or photo and find products that match the look in the photo. Screenshop uses techniques like machine learning and computer vision to identify products in images and then recommend similar looks and styles. According to its website, the Screenshop app you can use it to turn any photo into “shopping inspiration.” The app launched in November and is available on iOS and Android.
How do you use the Screenshop app?
The app is straightforward and easy to use. First, take a screenshot or a photo of a look you’d like to emulate. (Here, I grabbed a shot from the Instagram account @lovemydress.) Upload it to the app by tapping the plus sign in the lower right, and then tap the image for the app to begin generating similar looks and styles.
Alternatively, the app tracks when you take a screenshot that includes clothing items using its image recognition algorithms. When it notices you’ve taken such an image, a notification will automatically crop up. You can select that notification to add it to the app. From there, another tap brings you to a page with similar-looking products. You can tap on one of these suggested items to shop it or favorite it for later.
You can also help train the app by tapping thumbs or thumbs down to indicate the quality of the results it pulled up.
The app also features a hot-or-not, Tinder-style swiping section for discovering new fashions and outfits. Swipe left to ditch it, swipe right to add it to your favorites. A number of these images do seem to come from Kardashian Instagram accounts.
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How good is it at identifying clothes?
For the screenshot above, the app did do a remarkably good job of capturing the look and feel of the dresses in the original photo. At the top of the Shopping screen, it identified four different elements of the photo: two neckline types, the skirt of the dress on the right, and some layered detailing. By toggling through these different images, the app surfaced different types and styles of items.
For the first image, it included drapey, loose-fitting shirts with V-necklines and ruffle detailing. For the second, it pulled up V-neck, wrap-style dresses in various shades of blue (and one very cute looking blue “Alien Robe” bathrobe from ASOS). The third pulled up longer dresses, some with a similar style of skirt. And so on.
The app wasn’t quite so strong at its second task, finding a pair of mint-colored pointy-toe flats—but it still found suitably similar alternatives. It found a lot of white, silver, and nude pointy-toe heels, rather than mint colored ones (perhaps it realized that these shoes must have been dyed). After some scrolling, I was able to find a pair that was similar to the original, though.
I was quite satisfied with the results it pulled up for these two dresses, shared in a photo on Instagram by @lauracwinters. It did a fantastic job of color matching the pinky-peach in the dress on the left, and in finding similar colors and styles to the floral dress on the right.
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Are the Screenshop results accurate?
While the Screenshop app does a good job of capturing the essence of the products in the original photo, in no cases was it able to find the exact outfits worn in my screenshots. That’s not to say that would always be the case, though. Screenshop sources apparel from a variety of different brands and retailers such as ASOS, Forever 21, Calvin Klein, GUESS, and Nordstrom.
Given the variety of retailers, you also get a very good level of variety in quality and price point of the products it suggests, ranging from very affordable to high end. If you’re shopping a look, you can find a similar outfit no matter your budget—just as the app promises.
When Instagram or Pinterest fail you in revealing the brand of a particular item—or the item is out of your price range—this app can help you out. With all that in mind, it’s clear this app is legitimately a good way to find a similar look when all you’ve got is a photo or screenshot.
H/T Daily Mail