Guides
Walkthroughs for each part of BuyThisAgain, from your first save to buying it again.
- How to save your first item
- How barcode and text recognition work
- Remembering what you paid and where
- Using Buy Again
- Duplicate detection — Update Existing vs. Save Another
- Finding something months later
How to save your first item
Tap "Snap Something," take or choose one to three photos — the front label, the barcode, a spec sticker on the side, whatever shows what makes this one exact — then tell it what it's for ("Upstairs AC," "Kitchen faucet"). That label is required; every other field is optional and editable later.
How barcode and text recognition work
Every photo you add is run through Apple's Vision framework on
your device — VNDetectBarcodesRequest for UPC-A/E,
EAN-8/13, Code128, and QR codes, and
VNRecognizeTextRequest for any readable text. A
detected barcode fills in the UPC and barcode type automatically;
recognized text is kept as reference even when it can't be mapped
to a specific field automatically. Neither ever overwrites
something you've already typed yourself.
Remembering what you paid and where
Add a price and a retailer — "Amazon," "eBay," a local store name, typed freely, not picked from a fixed list — when you save or edit an item. It shows up as "Last paid $X at Y · N months ago" right above the Buy Again button, exactly when it's useful: the moment you're deciding whether to buy again.
Using Buy Again
Buy Again builds the most specific search it can from what you saved — a bare UPC when you have one (the single most precise thing to search), otherwise brand, product name, model number, and SKU plus a couple of key specs, falling back to category and your own context label if that's all there is. It opens as a plain web search; BuyThisAgain doesn't check prices across retailers or complete a purchase for you.
Duplicate detection — Update Existing vs. Save Another
Saving a new item that matches an existing one by UPC, then by brand + model number, then by brand + SKU, prompts you to choose: Update Existing folds the new photos and details into the item you already have, or Save Another keeps them as two separate records. BuyThisAgain never merges anything automatically — that choice is always yours.
Finding something months later
Search from Home matches against everything you saved — context label, brand, product name, model, SKU, UPC, notes, specifications, and any recognized text — instantly, entirely on your device, with no network needed. Type "upstairs filter" and get back the exact product, not a list of vaguely related photos.
More questions? See the FAQ or contact support.