What Is Matterport?

Dive into our guide on Matterport, the game-changing platform for creating immersive 3D virtual property tours. Discover its origin, key features, applications, and pricing. Try now!
What Is Matterport?

The one stop shop for virtual tours

You may not have heard about Matterport before, but the technology and services they provide are revolutionising the real estate marketing industry worldwide. Matterport is an all in one platform that aids both designers, home buyers, and vendors alike. Simply put, it’s the one stop technology shop for everything you need to create a fantastic virtual tour of any property or space.

How does Matterport work?

Unlike a traditional photo, Matterport is a continuous frame, allowing users to ‘walk’ around the rooms that have been captured, experiencing the depth that was not traditionally possible. Rooms can be connected to other areas of a scan, producing an interactive 3D space.

Related: How to create an online 360 virtual tour in 5 minutes

Matterport Origins

Matterport has been around since 2011 and started off with a very simple version of their current product. However, they’ve spent the last decade refining their offering and establishing themselves as an industry leader. Matterport’s user base consists of individual property sellers wanting to captivate potential buyers, all the way up to fortune 500 companies showing off their funky new office spaces.

Since the platform’s inception, it has processed billions of individual images to turn them into seamless 3D walk through experiences. Traditionally, a product of this power would have been unattainable for the everyday person. The beauty of Matterport has been their reasonably priced solutions, fueling their market growth as accessibility is no longer an issue.

Top Matterport Features

Matterport has a wide array of different features, but there are certain ones that really catch the eye. If you’ve never heard of Matterport prior to this article, this is your chance to learn a little more about the actual utility they bring to millions across the world.

1. Dollhouse View

Scan your rooms and Matterport will automatically create a 3D floor plan that resembles a doll house - it will be fully interactive and photorealistic.

2. Collaborative Tools

If you’re an interior designer using Matterport to design a space from a remote location then you have a suite of collaboration tools such as commenting to ensure messages are conveyed effectively.

3. Mattertags

Unique to the Matterport platform, Mattertags are links, notes, videos, and e-commerce workflows that can be embedded in the model.

4. Accurate AI Measuring

Matterport’s intuitive systems can calculate the accurate distance between two objects in the property scan - allowing online viewers to get an accurate understanding of the true dimensions of the space.

5. Blur Brush

If you’re selling your house and there’s personal photos or sensitive information lying around in the scans - simply blur it out to ensure that visitors to your digital space cannot see anything.

How Can Matterport be Utilised in Design & Construction?

Essentially, the scans that Matterport creates through users’ devices are digital ‘twins’. Mirror copies of the space in which the photos were taken. As the technology has developed, these digital twins have been used to make wiser decisions about furniture placement, architectural choices, and planning considerations.

If you’ve ever built or renovated a property you’ll understand the immense number of people who have to visit the location to take a look and provide a quote. With Matterport’s digital twin scans you are able to give tradespeople an advanced look at the space, and potentially get a quote without them ever having to visit! What a time saver!

Matterport has streamlined the entire interior design process completely. Interior decorators are now able to drag and drop different furniture items around the rooms that have been 3D scanned. Don’t like the colour paint on the wall? Use a virtual paint brush to see how it would look in a different shade!

Matterport Cost

Matterport is a SaaS business and they use a subscription model to bill their thousands of worldwide customers. Currently, they have four pricing plans. With a free plan at the bottom and an enterprise level solution capping the market. The free plan gives you 1 active space with a maximum of 2 users. We recommend trying this plan out first to see how the software responds to the space you’re trying to capture.

You must have a supported camera to use Matterport’s platform - check out their website to see if yours is supported.

Wrapping Up

Digital twins and 3D property scans have taken construction and design to entirely new levels of sophistication. It is now possible to collaborate with different tradespeople in real time. Anybody of any level is eligible to take advantage of Matterport’s systems. With the right use of their platform you’ll be the talk of the town!