Online real estate marketplace Zillow is rounding out a year’s worth of mobile innovation with possibly its most splashy feature yet: an update to its flagship app that features iMessage App Store support.

This new iMessage app allows users to quickly access and share photos and information about a home’s key features through text messages with friends without having to leave the messaging screen, producing a user-friendly experience for online home shopping for consumers that are increasingly demanding that all ecommerce experiences do so.

“The new feature from Zillow isn’t necessarily bringing something new to the table with this addition—really it is just a way to codify and augment a process that was already happening through link sharing on iMessage,” said Marci Troutman, CEO of SiteMinis. “Millennials and younger demographics will most likely be fine with this process, but older generations can still tend to be a little skittish about invasion into their presumed private space.

“The table was set by Facebook that Messenger would be a walled arena for more personal messaging than occurred in the more public space of a consumers Facebook wall,” she said. “While we as consumers are opening up more and more, these enhancements will continue to grow.

“Zillow is doing the right thing here in looking ahead, as millennials are in the top tier of home buying currently.”

iMessage functionality
According to the Zillow Group’s Report on Consumer Housing Trends, home shopping is a shared activity, with 86 percent of people co-shopping with a spouse or partner, and 13 percent with a friend or other family member.

Zillow for iMessage is designed to fit into that browsing behavior, appealing to shoppers who are increasingly searching for homes on their smartphone with the help of their family and friends.

According to Zillow, in November alone home shoppers clicked to share homes via text over 1.68 million times in the Zillow iOS app.

With the iMessage functionality, home shoppers on Zillow can now Immediately access and browse through Recently Viewed and Saved Homes tabs quickly and easily while on the go; instantly share property photos of for sale and for rent homes, home facts, sales history and Zestimate details with friends and family; and share, confer, and coordinate the home search process all without leaving the text conversation.

On-the-go
The new iMessage feature was created during Zillow’s November Hack and Innovation Week events. Hack Week is a Zillow tradition, held three to four times per year, when all Zillow employees are invited to dedicate their time to dream up and innovate special projects of their choice.

This year has been one of significant mobile innovation for the real estate company. Last month, it debuted a pair of new features, one of which integrates Facebook’s targeting platform to help agents optimize their campaign efforts (see story).

And later that month, it further accommodated its mobile users by rolling out a video walkthrough feature that allows sellers to easily create videos on their smartphones (see story).

“iMessage integration, as I mentioned, can be tricky for brands; they need to be aware that this is a safe space and to tread lightly in order not to be shut out,” Ms. Troutman said. “Forgiveness after a shut out is rare for consumers.”