Amazon Share Screenshot

✋ What is it?

This is a solution found in the Amazon iOS app. When a user takes a screenshot of a product, the app automatically shows a share dialog that allows the user to share the screenshot instantly.

🤲 How does this interaction or solution work?

When users navigate shopping apps like Amazon, very often they screenshot product details so they can share these with relatives and friends. Sometimes users rely on this behavior to "bookmark" or remember products.

When a user takes a screenshot of a product detail in the Amazon app, the app fires a dialog that prompts the user to share the image. If the user taps the share button in the dialog, the app launches the native share sheet, allowing the user to push the image to any app of their choice (most likely a messaging or social media app).

Although this mechanic is useful and beneficial to the user, it seems that Amazon deprecated this functionality with the launch of iOS 11, which already provides a sharing/editing layer at the OS level.

At the time of this writing, we couldn't trigger this interaction, but it's likely that is still available on some specific iOS devices and versions of the app.

🙌 How does this interaction or solution work?

Keeping Context and Delight.

When users interact with their mobile phones, there are multiple activities and task threads happening outside of the phone's awareness.

For instance, mobile shopping is likely more social and shareable than shopping on a desktop computer.
Since users rely on their phones to communicate with friends and relative, there's already a smaller gap between browsing products and sharing them.

Amazon simplifies this behavior by anticipating the user's action and providing an easily accessible menu to complete the thread they initiated when they took a screenshot. This mechanic helps the user to remain in context, and it adds delight by simplifying a common activity.