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Homebuyers and looky-loos can now scope out their favorite Zillow listings easier than ever before with the portal’s latest iOS mobile integration, Look Around.
“With Look Around, shoppers can act more quickly and confidently, whether they’re searching in their own neighborhood or hundreds or thousands of miles away,” Zillow CTO David Beitel said of the new feature on Wednesday.
Look Around utilizes Apple Maps’ 3D feature that lets users get 360-degree street views at Zillow listings in their area. Like Google Street View, homebuyers can take virtual strolls past potential homes by swiping their fingers to pan, move backward and forward or zoom in or out on a listing.
Here’s how it works:
- Pan: Drag a finger left or right
Look around on Zillow
- Move forward: Tap the scene
- Zoom in or out: Pinch open or closed
- Switch to or from full-screen view: Tap one of the two icons with arrows pointing toward or away from each other
- View another point of interest: Switch from full-screen view, then tap elsewhere on the map
- Hide labels in full-screen view: Tap the place card at the bottom of the screen, then tap the eye symbol with the slash through it
- When finished tap Done
In addition to viewing listings, homebuyers can also take a look at other nearby points of interest including restaurants, transit stops, gas stations and more.
If they need some help sussing out the perfect abode, iOS users can use Apple’s SharePlay function to browse listings together on separate devices — an integration Zillow launched in December. Like other methods of sharing content on iOS devices, users can use SharePlay by tapping the listing they’d like to share and clicking Apple’s share button, which is a square icon with an upward-pointing arrow.
Zillow’s new Apple Maps integration
Currently, Look Around is only available in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Oahu, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Cruz, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
“We’re pushing the boundaries of what home buyers and renters can expect when shopping for a home online,” Beitel added.
