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As you look through your vacation photos, you may have fond memories of the places you went and the things you saw. But after a while memories can fade, especially if you visited multiple destinations on a trip.
Or maybe you’re on a trip and trying to read a sign in a language you don’t understand. Or you’re visiting a museum and want to learn more about the artwork you’re seeing.
Google Lens is a free tool that can help with all of these situations.
Formerly Google Lens was only available on the Pixel phone, but now it is part of the Google Photos app for Android and iPhone. You may already have Google Lens on your Phone without even realizing it, because it’s a bit hidden in the Google Photos app.
What Google Lens Can Do
Google Lens is a handy tool that now comes in Google Photos. You can use it to find out more information about what is in an image.
You can use Google Lens to:
- Translate text into different languages
- Identify places, landmarks, points of interest and architecture
- Learn more about artwork in museums
- Identify animals and plants
- Learn more about books, movies, music albums and video games from images
- Add business card information to your Contacts
- Add information from an image into your calendar
…and more.
Google Lens is currently available in “Preview mode” so don’t rely on it for life-changing information. But it can be a source for learning more about what you’re seeing in a photo.
Note that Google Lens works only on phones set to the English language at this point.
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How to Use Google Lens
Google Lens is available in the Google Photos app for iPhone/iPad and Android. To use Google Lens, make sure you have the most current version of the Google Photos app. Then open the Google Photos app and select a photo.
Under the photo you will see icons. Tap the Google Lens icon that looks like a square missing in the lower right corner, and has a dot in the middle of it.
Google Lens will start working its magic to try to identify what is in the photo. While it is trying to figure out what is in the image, dots will appear across the image. After it has completed its work, Google Lens will show you the results at the bottom of the screen.
If Google Lens can’t figure out what it’s seeing, this will appear at the bottom of the screen.
Google Lens also gives you a link to search the image on Google, whether or not it can identify the subject of the picture. You can use this link to learn more about what’s in the photo or when you’re unsure whether Google Lens was correct.
Translating Text with Google Lens
To translate text, highlight the text in the image, tap Text Selection under the photo.
Google Lens will ask you to highlight the text you wish to translate. Tap on the text and tap Search in the next window.
Google will open with a translation of the text.
Using Google Lens
Google Lens is a fun and easy way to learn more about what’s in a photo. Use it to identify landmarks,
animals,
plants,
and anything else you’re curious about.
But Google Lens isn’t perfect. It is in Preview Mode so it doesn’t identify everything.
And sometimes Google Lens gets information wrong. My dog Astro was correctly identified as a dog by Google Lens, though not the correct breed. Astro is a Cavachon — half Bichon and half Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
Google Lens tends to do better with identifying pure-bred dogs than cross-breeds.
Your Thoughts
Did you know Google Lens was available on iPhone, iPad and Android phones now? Have you used Google Lens to identify anything? What would you use Google Lens for?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
*ARRÊT sign image via Wikimedia and Creative Commons
Hi Carolyn,
This new app or whatever it’s called is absolutely scary. I used it on a
picture my daughter sent me from Italy and it told me what restaurant
and what kind of beer here husband was drinking. It also identified some
of the Roman ruins she sent me pictures of.
Carlo
Hi Carlo, Well, that could be considered scary or very cool, depending on your perspective. If knowledge is power, then Google Lens could be a very powerful tool for us.
Google Lens does not identify people, just animals, plants and objects.
I do hope you enjoy using Google Lens, Carlo.
Hi Carolyn,
I am so amazed by this technology. Google is coming up with great things. This surely looks cool. New inventions are making our lives so much easier. No wonder Google is ruling the industry.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful post. Have a great weekend. 🙂
Hi Sajid, Yes, this is a very handy tool many people already have on their phones without even realizing it. You can use Google Lens for many purposes to learn more about the world around you.
I hope you enjoy using Google Lens, Sajid.
I always amazed by this Google. Google is always coming up with really great stuff. Surely looks awesome.
Hi Michael, Yes, this tech can come in very handy when you want to identify something or add a date to your calendar quickly. I hope you enjoy using Google Lens.
Amazing! Its really a great technology and google always comes with some good things and sometime not good for common people ;). From Google Earth to StreetView and soon it will enter our homes :).
By the way..thanks for sharing this information.
Hello Sam, Yes, Google is covering the globe with its tech, so why not use that knowledge to educate us? And Google is already in our homes with Google Assistant…
Yes its true. 🙂
Hi Carolyn,
Thank you very much for letting me know about this Google lens feature. I was not aware of this from now I am going to use this. This is a very interesting feature.
Hi Asif, Yes, this helpful tool is already on our phones if we use Google Photos. Yet many people don’t even know it’s there. I hope you find Google Lens very useful, Asif.
The concepts is really nice. It simplifies google search for some specific things or objects. I hope it improves over time.
Hello Heritan, Yes, Google Lens is a very useful tool that many of us didn’t know we have on our phones already. I do hope it gets more accurate over time.