Google Lens lets you search what you see, get things done faster, and understand the world around you—using just your camera or a photo.
SCAN & TRANSLATE TEXT
Translate words you see, save a business card to your contacts, add events to your calendar from a poster, and copy and paste complicated codes or long paragraphs into your phone to save time.
IDENTIFY PLANTS & ANIMALS
Find out what that plant is in your friend’s apartment, or what kind of dog you saw in the park.
EXPLORE PLACES AROUND YOU
Identify and learn about landmarks, restaurants, and storefronts. See ratings, hours of operation, historical facts, and more.
FIND THE LOOK YOU LIKE
See an outfit that catches your eye? Or a chair that’s perfect for your living room? Find similar clothes, furniture, and home decor to the one you like.
KNOW WHAT TO ORDER
See popular dishes on a restaurant menu based on reviews from Google Maps.
SCAN CODES
Quickly scan QR codes and barcodes.
*Limited availability and not available in all languages or regions. For further details go to g.co/help/lens. Some Lens features require an internet connection.
vLove it! When I first tried this a couple years ago, it definitely needed some work. Most of the things I tried searching for just were not in the database. Fast forward two years and what a difference! Most everything I look for (vintage estate items to value and price) have several results. Very rarely now, ( less than 5 % of the time) does it come up empty. The only issue I’ve had is more of a bug in the app issue where it will search for part of the picture which ends up way off base.
This is a very nice way to search online for unusual items that you can’t name, or forget what they’re called. Just place the item by itself with a plain background and capture it with lens, just like you were taking a smartphone photo. Then wait a moment and let it search. I’m having FUN! It’s very addictive and it’s really helping me find similar items to whatever I point at, whether in a catalog or in person. Also superb for price comparison.
I study a lot of languages and use this to translate on a screen when I don’t understand a sentence. Constantly opens on photos. Annoying. When it translates, it immediately pops up a screen requesting feedback. Extremely annoying. I’m using it to translate words that are going by fast on a screen. I don’t want an annoying popup after every translation!
Absolutely love this app. Sometimes it is a little out in left field, but usually it is right on. Wish it linked up with a shopping option sometimes. I’ve had fun discovering new things by accident, though, whether because of an intermingled misidentification, a link to an interesting article I can’t resist, or a link to a creative artist or writer with an association to what I have searched.
Use this to take a photo and search the internet for the item in the photo. It works pretty good although if you have a unique item it obviously won’t find a match but it will find similar. You can scan plants/bugs to identify them too. Price comparison for online shopping too. Many ways to use this. It is not always accurate but you can see that it’s close and most times gets it right. So I wouldn’t use it if I needed to know something for sure.
App is useful over half of the time. I’m a collector/seller so it really helps me to know not only possible value, but actual names and brands sometimes when I didn’t know it. But sometimes it is WAY off pulling up totally different things and it would be great if we could tell it that that’s not what they are pulling up and to try different stuff.
I love the text reader on this app. It is my favorite to take images of book pages and listen to my book while I do other things. I do wish I could load in many pages to be read and what order to read them in. That would be amazing. But as it is it works fine and much better than some other apps i’ve tried.
One of the best overlooked apps. The translation feature is amazing. The search by camera or image feature is scary it’s so accurate. I pointed my camera at a car in a parking lot and it not only knew the make and model but the exact year. This is the future of internet searching.
Love this app for the most part. It is a little aggravating at times when it shows me things that are not remotely related to what I’m trying to search. But then again isn’t every thing on a phone aggravating at one time or another? I really like the different options it gives for searches like text or Google or just the image. Which makes having the focus box a great essential because I can search for something imparticular that’s just part of the image.
I use this constantly whenever I want to find items of clothing, furniture, or just about anything that I have seen from pictures or TV. It originally started from screenshots, to searching through Google web search for the items. I have to say most of the time you definitely can find better pricing and deals for the items, but you should be leery since it does incorporate scam companies or places that do not catter to US into the algorithmic search. However, I still love this feature!
One would think that with the extensive images on Google there would be more similar images that are produced but unfortunately that is not the case. After over 200 images and only having 3 images that were accurate it is a waste of time. I have better luck searching the internet for the image than with Google Lens. It also doesn’t take good pictures so I have to take pictures then upload my photo. It doesn’t stay connected so I have to close out app then reopen. Uninstalling.
Google Lens allows you to explore things in a whole new prespective. It’s quick and easy to operate which is awesome when you may be on the go or in a hurry. It allows you to identify people, places, animals, ( insects ) etc with just a click of a button instantly! It is an Awesome App!
I’m sure its great for finding objects. And I love that it scans text. That makes it priceless. But like all other reverse image apps and Google search that are stifled by some privacy or copyright law or another…no people searches. There was a time when identifying a catfisher was so easy – but now no longer. That’s good news for the scammers. Its bad news for the few with an “eye” for scammers but need proof to turn them in and save 100s of others from being taken in by said scammer. Shame.
I use this app constantly. I use it to identify people in photos, but more often, I use it to capture text. For example, if I need to get a serial number off of something that’s hard to reach, I snap a picture, crop it so that only the text remains, and open it in Google Lens to capture the text. It does near perfect OCR.
The app is brilliant as far as concept and, on occasion, execution goes. Maybe I am somewhat ignorant but when two or three dots appear and I am still waiting for a different item to be identified, if I tap the screen it seems to select a random, if not the most recent, dot. Next, the rest disappear or they remain and move around when I try to get a better view of a certain object, even whilst the other dots are in the frame and this causes them to become unrecognizable. Honestly, I just don’t feel like I am in control most of the time. Really cool app when it does what I want but, otherwise, it does need serious UI improvements. I expect more from Google.
The app is hit or miss. I took a broken part out of a lamp and scanned the bar code on it. I was initially amazed when the app correctly ID’d the part on the first scan. The app even listed some on-line retailers for the part. I wanted to see if I could get it from Amazon, so I switched to the Amazon app. When I tried going back to the Lens app, it didn’t show up in the list of recent apps, so I had to reopen the Lens app and rescan the part. My first scan must have been very lucky because this second attempt took many scans to finally get back to my initial result. For some strange reason, Google Lens does not show up in the list of previous apps, which is a pain when you need to switch between Lens and another app. Also, scanning the same thing multiple times produced very inconsistent results from scan to scan.
This is terrible in every way. There’s no way to manual focus which means you will have to keep moving you phone around just to get the scan to be clear enough to read. The results are focused on stores and websites instead of just pure text. It always annoys you by showing what it can do, which it doesn’t do very well, not even worth the storage space on your device.
I think it’s amazing there’s an app that can help you figure things out just by taking a picture of it.It’s not perfect with understanding everything you take a picture of but it’s getting better. And again what it can do already is incredible. If you want to learn about your surroundings this app can help.From plants to animals, books, pictures, photos and many miscellaneous objects that you may want to know what it is what it does and thus search further through the internet about it.Discover.
I gave it a fair shot. Tried multiple times to find online a similar image, or locate a product, the services advertised by this app, and not once has it ever known what to do. I get a screen saying they can’t help which lists the things Lens can do. The list is not interactive, so no, tapping the task I wanted to accomplish did not help. Uninstalling. What a waste.
Very buggy. Half the time it freezes up as soon as I open the app and try to point at something. I have a Galaxy S10+ so memory clearly isn’t an issue here. I believe the app’s sensitivity sensor needs to be better corroborated with the camera and phone software so that it’s not instantly freezing up as soon as I open and point. Otherwise when it works as intended it becomes a great tool. I once used it to identify a car make and model I didn’t recognize. It accurately found it. Fix the bugs
98% of the time it absolutely can be of a huge inspiration & assistance to me. It’s been great to see the vast improvements over the years. However, it’s not always the results I want to learn for the rest of the 2%! Therein is my frustrations. I seek answers for pictures or translations; it’s unnerving to learn how many times answers cannot be offered.
I usually use this app for communications. It works great for translating text, during online conversations – or when trying navigate public spaces where the common language is no the same as your own. Lens helps translate text with extreme quality results. I honestly have almost no knowledge about the rest of the app. I know you can look things up by image, and that seems like a useful and interesting idea.
It’s amazing how much this app can do. Just two examples. I went for a walk in valley forge Park Pennsylvania. I was able to use the app to identify a large range of plants and trees and learn so much about them. Fast forward to different use. I scanned a business card. All the information was accurately transcribed into contacts. Again it’s just impressive how well it does these tasks.
I’ve seen apps like this in past years, but they never worked well enough to really be that useful. I’m amazed at how well this works for identifying products and translating text in real-time, on your screen in an AR fashion (projecting the translation over the original text in the viewfinder). This app does a few different things very well, and it works nearly instantly. So cool! And potentially useful in many situations, I recommend having it on your phone.
No issues at all. Seems to find everything the way I need it. If I say took a blurry picture or need to better the results you have all options to do so. Simple easy to use. I recommend for anyone who constantly searches for anything and everything with little resources. Also can translate anything in a different language that is helpful for those traveling.
I love this app. It helps to identify items in question, and I must say, it does it rather well. No, it isn’t 100% accurate, but what is..? If, intuitively or knowingly, you feel the info is incorrect, just continue using it, the correct answer may eventually show. It’s satisfying to me. Finally, an app that can assist me in identifying items I’m unfamiliar with. I hope your experiences will be as great as mine.
I’m a big user of the Google Assistant, and recently have been getting more into Google lens. The integration between the two is spectacular. I have had no problems with Google lens, and it’s been able to identify different dog breeds for me, different products that I see, and has really helped me translate some of my favorite restaurants menus into English. I love the app, love the integration, and hope to continue to see the app improve!
It’s pretty neat but still isn’t quite “there” yet. It still doesn’t identify alot but gives some input at least (for example, if I was trying to identify a plant and if it cant it will say “It looks like … A plant?” Ive tried a few times and it has only been absolutely correct once ). It is still fun to try out though and will be patiently awaiting updates! 🙂
it was a very good piece of software. but they ruined it with a load up screen that shows things you photographed. when i want to ID something, use this program. but now all i see are things i shot. and i don’t care about those. i’ll choose it if i need to, it really ruins the program. i also really wish i could find color images using black and white images. i know it can ID stuff, it should be able to turn color into colorless and search for that. instead all i get is old time grainy photos when i show it a car in an old photo. its silly.
The app works beautifully for ~97% of things. It even knew what car I was in just from the stereo system. Only reason I haven’t given it a 5* rating is there are adjustments needed, (which will always be the case,) but in this case I wasn’t able to identify a mineral, (which could have value,) and would hope that to be integrated into the system. Otherwise it is a fantastic app, and if you’re able to use it then by all means do so, it may spark your intrest 😉
Awesome! This is incredible. I tested the app with random things I’d pass throughout the day, and every time, without fail, it found the exact product and also showed me similar options. I’m finding it particularly good at presenting less expensive alternatives that achieve the same look and at the same time, the same exact product for less on other sites.
Translation feature is great! Unfortunately, without the internet it’s completely useless. The worst part about this app is the shopping feature and its object recognition… It can ONLY read barcodes, everything else has about a 5% success rate. Again, this app is probably the best at what it does amongst similar apps, unfortunately, the features are still very raw.
Truly impressive. I point it at car parts, tools, equipment, and other random objects and it identifies them 90% of the time, even weird things like wheels off an 50s model Chrysler. When it’s not accurate, it’s usually because the object has a common look. A pair of shoes will bring up results with similar shoes but maybe not the exact brand unless there’s a unique feature in the photo. The translate function is also great, it overlays the translation onto the camera view.
Great app & easy to use to find where you can buy an item from it’s picture. I was surprised at how many stores sell the same item that I needed. It’s also great to get info on an item, animal, person, etc from a picture. Suggestions for improvement: 1) more accurate searches Ex. If I am searching for a specific eagle statue, I don’t want to see pictures of live eagles. 2) It would be beneficial if we can choose the language & what Countries we want to include in our search.
I love the concept. However the main thing I wanted to try (reading QR codes) did not work at all. And trying to highlight something simple on a desk is more likely to find (barely) similar images or highlight text on whatever you were trying to look at and then search for that.
This one can be hit or miss. If you like the concept it works well enough. If you dont mind the just as hit or miss functionality of the micro touch screen keyboard dont bother. Its all about which way your going to get annoyed or possibly get lucky and identify the mystery object. Its about options and this one can put you at an advantage sometimes. If you havent tried it cause you dont like new things, nevermind…3 stars for existing.
I love the app for the most part, but it has a HUGE, glaring problem. When I search an image, and then want to see more about a specific result, the links and buttons don’t work. I click/tap once and wait, nothing happens; I click/tap again, and nothing happens. Nothing happens at all 90% of the time. Even when I select a result just to look at it and compare, and when I want to navigate to one of the website results I can’t most of the time.
Love, love this app!! I work for a non-profit thrift store and I constantly have to look up the value of items. Sometimes the search is off…usually, due to lighting, etc.. Most of the time the item I have taken a photo of is on the first few search page results. Regardless, it is my go to app for items I am unfamiliar with, that lack a upc. Most, if not all of my co-workers are Apple users. When they need help looking up an item, I cheerfully remind them that Apple products are inferior!🤣
1.It doesnt really give you a quick tutorial on how to use it. 2. I am not a techi,and I do not use it if I can keep from it. 3.When you type a heading you cannot move it anywhere else on the pic. 4.when you use stickers from the bottom the don’t stay either, you can’t change the size of font either. 5. Being able to change the lighting if its too dark or light is great. Thanks. 6. When you try to get out of 1 section is a very difficult thing to do. I would rather just not use it. I have tried.
The app is great but still in its infancy. It would be great if they could make it search other cloud storage libraries as well + device libraries to find duplicates and similar photos with an option to delete low quality duplicates. One issue I had was translation. I can go to google to translate something faster. Showing on-screen translations real time. I don’t know if it has this feature but recognizing business cards, transfering to a Google sheets doc contacts template would be great!