Google launched Google Lens on October 4, 2017. Its is an AI powered vision based computing technology developed by Google. Using camera of your device and Internet connection, you can find any relevant and useful information using Google Lens technology. Translate feature of Google Lens does not even require Internet connection provided you have downloaded language packs on your device.
“Don’t know anything about the object you see, open your camera and use Google lens to Identify that Object.” Not only just identification of the object, you can also point your camera to any item you want to buy for example a headphone or dining table etc. It can search for similar objects via Google shopping and provide you the results of where you can buy this product and how much it will cost.
Getting started with Google Lens
You can use Google Lens on your Windows, Mac, iPhone or Android device. Here is how you can start using Google Lens from these devices:
How to use Google Lens on Windows and Mac Device ?
You can use Google Lens on a Windows or Mac device from any browser e.g. Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Safari etc. You can click on the Camera Icon on Google Images search bar to start using Google Lens.
You can also click on Search image with Google Lens after you right-click on a searched Image on Google Images and click on “Search Image with Google Lens“. This is In-built option when you are using Google Chrome browser.
If you are using any other browser then you may need to install Google Lens extension. For example, If you are using Mozilla Firefox and want to get the option “Search Image with Google Lens” in the context menu when you right click on the Image. You will need to install an Add-On Search on Google Lens in Firefox.
How to use Google Lens on iPhone and Android Device ?
On your iPhone or Android phone, you can download Google App and click on Google Lens Icon to start using Google Lens. On your Android Phone, you can also download Google Lens App as well which is a dedicated app for using Google Lens.
7 Best Features of Google Lens
- Translate: Google Lens can Translate the text shown via your phone’s camera in real time. You can translate the text even when you are not connected to the internet. But for offline use, you need to download language pack on your phone in advance. Its is really useful specially if you are travelling to another country where you do not understand the language and want to know what’s written on Train stations, Airports, Restaurant Menu. Below is the screenshot of Google Lens Translate, I have opened Google Lens app and tried to read some text written in French, which it automatically converted it to English.
- Text: Open Google Lens and tap on Text option. Point your camera on some text to Listen [text to speech] or you can just copy the text, copy the text to your computer.
- Search: Search for any landmark, building or any product. Google Lens will try to Identify that object and provide you with Product Name, pictures and more useful information. As you can see in my Google Lens Search, I pointed my camera to my laptop keyboard and it identified that as Lenovo ThinkPad product.
- Homework: If you are stuck on a problem, you can use Google Lens to find solutions. It could a problem of math, history, chemistry, biology, physics, and more.
- Shopping: Use Google lens for searching for a Product you want to buy or use a barcode to identify the product.
- Places: Point the camera at a building for getting details about that building, historical facts, hours of operation etc.
- Dining: Take a photo of Food or menu to know more about it.
More Examples:
- Clothes and home goods: Find similar products and where to buy them.
- Business card: Save the phone number or address to a contact.
- Painting in a museum: Read about the artist and learn more.
- Plant or animal: Learn about species and breeds.
Search Images with Google Lens option on Windows
Search images with Google Lens option is In-built into Google chrome browser. You may have noticed that you get an option of Search images with Google Lens when you right click on that Image. When you click on this option, Google Lens tries to return the most relevant and useful results. This results are normally shown on the right hand side pane.
Below screenshot shows the option “Search images with Google Lens” when you right-click on any Image searched via Google Images.
After you click on Search Images with Google Lens, You can see that Google Lens Search will search for relevant images and provide you with most useful information.
How to turn off Google Lens in Chrome on Windows and Mac
Lets now see how you can Turn Off Google Lens search option while using Google Chrome browser on Windows 10 or Windows 11 device. We will use Chrome flags to turn off google lens. Please note Chrome flags are Experimental features of Google chrome. Chrome flag setting changes will affect all users on this device.
- Open Google Chrome browser and type chrome://flags in the address bar and press Enter.
- Search for lens in the search box at the top. You will find two settings “Enable Lens fullscreen search features” and “Enable Lens features in Chrome“. Change the status of these settings from the drop down box and set it to Disabled. If these settings are set to Default status, then Google Lens will still be enabled. So make sure to select Disabled from the drop down for both settings and then click on Relaunch to close and launch google chrome browser again.
- Enable Lens fullscreen search features and Enable lens features in Chrome are set to Disabled. In the next step we will be verifying if Search images with Google Lens option no longer available in the context menu of an Image.
- Instead of Search Images with Google Lens option, you should now see “Search Google for Image”. When you click on Search Google for Image, the image will be searched in Google Images and not by using Google Lens.
- After clicking on “Search Google for Image”. You can see that the search results are shows from Google Images instead of Google Lens. You also get the option to Find other sizes of this image. You can click on All sizes, Small, Medium or Large.
How to turn off Google Lens search on iPhone
If you do not need Google Lens search on an iPhone, you can simply uninstall Google App from your phone. Google lens is integrated into the search bar of Google App. Please find below screenshot which shows Google Lens Icon in the search bar of Google App.
How to Turn off Google Lens search on Android
I you do not need Google Lens search on your Android Phone, you can uninstall Google Lens and Google Apps from your Android phone. Google Lens is a dedicated application used for Google Lens and Google App has in built Google Lens Icon in its search bar.
Remove Google Lens and Google App on Android Phone
- Go to Settings App and then find Apps and notifications.
- Search for Lens App and tap on it.
- Tap on Uninstall to uninstall the Google Lens application.
- Repeat the same process for Google App as well (Please note, if you do not have the option to Uninstall Google App then you can disable this app).
To Quickly Uninstall any application on android phone, you can find the Installed application Icon, Tap and hold the app until you see more options and tap on Uninstall.
Turn off Search Images with Google Lens option in Chrome on an Android Phone
You will get “Search Images with Google Lens” option when you tap and hold on an Image searched using Google Images. However, you can disable this option and replace it with “Search Google for this Image“. Let’s see the steps:
- Open Google chrome application and type chrome://flags in the Address bar and press enter.
- In the search box search for lens and you will find “Google lens powered image search in the context menu“
- Set it to Disabled.
- click on Relaunch button. This will close Google chrome and reopen.
- After you Relaunch Google Chrome browser and search for Images using Google chrome. You can now tap and hold any image to get more options and confirm that “Search Images with Google Lens” option has been replaced with “Search Google for this Image“.
Conclusion
In this blog post, We have seen What is Google lens and How it works. What are the different features of Google Lens. You can also turn off Google Lens on your Windows, Mac, Android or iPhone by using the steps provided in this Post. Google Lens is really useful but sometime you may not find what you are looking for. Some users just want to Search the Images in Google Images and not Google Lens. Therefore, you can simply disable this option in Google Chrome. If you are using browsers other than Google chrome, you may not see this option in the context menu when you right click on an Image.
