Hellofresh has traditionally used its app as a tool for existing customers to manage their weekly deliveries. By now removing the barriers for non-customers, the company aims to reach a wider audience and allow more people to access the platform's content and recipe bank.
From Social Media Straight Into The App
In connection with the opening of the app, the new and free features “Cookbook” and “Discover” are introduced. These function as a collection point for recipes, where the technology is based on collecting and structuring information.
Users can use integrated AI to save recipe content from videos on platforms such as Tiktok, Instagram and Youtube, or from external food blogs. The app reads the content and automatically generates an ingredient list and step-by-step instructions. It is also possible to photograph physical paper recipes to digitize them.
According to the company, over one million recipes have already been saved globally by users since the new features were soft-launched a couple of weeks ago.
At the same time, the company is unlocking its own recipe bank, allowing unregistered users to search and save dishes that were previously reserved for paying customers.
Opens Up To External Food Creators
Later this year, the platform plans to further expand its content by integrating external food creators. Swedish profiles will be offered the opportunity to publish their own dishes in the "Discover" tab, complete with profile pages and links to their own channels.
In the long run, the app is intended to learn users' patterns and offer a personalized feed of food inspiration, where the company's own recipes are mixed with user-generated content.
This is a natural extension of our meal kit service and forms the basis of our vision for a seamless platform: from the very first scroll of inspiration to the moment you put the food on the plate, says Andreas Støvring, CEO of Hellofresh Norden.