On iPhone and iPad, WebAR hands the 3D model to Apple’s built-in AR Quick Look; on Android it uses Google’s Scene Viewer. Both are part of the operating system, so nothing is downloaded.
The shopper taps “View in your space”, points the camera at the floor or wall, and the product appears at true scale, anchored in place, so they can walk around it and judge fit.
Because it is a link rather than an app, WebAR works from search results, ads, emails and QR codes as well as the product page.
How a product page opens AR without an app
The page offers a "View in your space" button. What it does depends on the phone. On iPhone and iPad, Safari opens a USDZ file in AR Quick Look when the link is marked rel="ar". On Android, the button opens an intent URL that hands a GLB file to Google’s Scene Viewer. Both viewers ship with the operating system, which is why the shopper installs nothing.
On desktop there is no camera to place the product with, so the usual pattern is a QR code. The shopper scans it with their phone and lands in AR with the same product and the same finish they were looking at.
What makes WebAR look right or wrong
Scale is the first thing shoppers notice. AR viewers read the model’s units literally, so a sofa modelled in centimetres but exported as metres arrives a hundred times too big. glTF uses metres; checking one known dimension against the spec sheet catches most of these errors.
The second is the origin point. The model’s base should sit at floor level, or it will float above the floor or sink through it. The third is file weight. A 60 MB model on a phone connection means the shopper waits, and many will not.
WebAR, WebXR and app AR are different things
Teams often use the terms loosely. WebAR in commerce usually means the hand-off described above: the browser passes a file to the phone’s own AR viewer. WebXR is a browser API that runs the AR session inside the page itself, with more control and narrower device support. App AR means a native app, which gives the most control but asks the shopper to install something first.
Why it matters
Seeing scale and finish in the real room is the strongest returns lever in visual commerce — the shopper answers “will it fit?” before checkout.
Questions about WebAR (app-free AR)
- Does WebAR work on every phone?
- It works on iPhones and iPads that run AR Quick Look and on Android phones with Google Play Services for AR. Older or low-end phones without AR support can still show the 3D viewer in the browser.
- Do I need two different 3D files for iPhone and Android?
- Yes. iOS reads USDZ and Android reads GLB. A good pipeline produces both from one source model, so they never drift apart. Thridify exports both automatically.
- Can WebAR be opened from an ad or an email?
- Yes, because it is just a link. The same AR experience can be reached from a product page, a QR code in a showroom, a campaign landing page or an email.