Online eyewear retailer Warby Parker is making updating both glasses and contact lens prescriptions easier with an update to its iOS app, The Verge reported on Monday (July 19).
Customers can now update and renew their prescriptions on their phones Warby Parker’s Virtual Vision Test for $15. The test is an update from the Prescription Check iOS app, which required both a laptop and a phone.
The new app combines Warby Parker’s algorithm with Apple-exclusive software called Vision Framework to run the virtual vision test solely on a phone. Users must answer typical optometry questions, fulfill criteria like not having “eye health concerns,” see well through their current glasses or contacts, and use a single-vision distance prescription, The Verge noted.
Users then complete a basic vision test by reading letters from their phone screen and alternately covering each eye. The new prescription will be written in about 48 hours, and users won’t be charged unless they are approved for a new prescription.
This is the first time Warby Parker will offer a contact lens prescription renewal option on their app, despite adding contact lenses to their line in 2019. Renewing a contact lens prescription will require different considerations than renewing a glasses prescription, The Verge noted.
While expanding its mobile offerings, Warby Parker is also eyeing a wider presence in physical retail. After confidentially filing for an initial public offering, the brand recently said that it plans to open three dozen new brick-and-mortar stores before the end of 2021, and could eventually expand to “hundreds” of locations.
While the virtual test is not a substitute for a complete, in-person optometrist visit, the algorithm and framework’s measurements reduce human error, The Verge reported.
The app is only available for iPhone models 6S and up; no Android app is currently offered.
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