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Google Lens rollout in Assistant announced, coming soon to Pixel in six countries

Over the weekend, several Pixel and Pixel 2 owners noticed that Google Lens was now available on their devices. Today, Google officially announced the rollout of visual search assistant and that it would be talking place over the coming weeks.

Announced at I/O 2017 and shown off again with the Pixel 2’s launch, Google Lens is a visual assistant that can recognize a multitude of objects and helps users take action:

  • Text: Save information from business cards, follow URLs, call phone numbers and navigate to addresses.
  • Landmarks: Explore a new city like a pro with your Assistant to help you recognize landmarks and learn about their history.
  • Art, books and movies: Learn more about a movie, from the trailer to reviews, right from the poster. Look up a book to see the rating and a short synopsis. Become a museum guru by quickly looking up an artist’s info and more. You can even add events, like the movie release date or gallery opening, to your calendar right from Google Lens.
  • Barcodes: Quickly look up products by barcode, or scan QR codes, all with your Assistant.

It leverages Google’s advancements in computer vision and machine learning, and will be accessible in the bottom right corner of Assistant. Clicking the new camera icon launches a viewfinder, with tapping on an object initiating a search. Google will then surface a knowledge card of the identified object, as well as a carousel of suggestions.

Google Lens will be rolling out to Pixel and Pixel 2 phones set to English in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, India, and Singapore over the coming weeks. It is already available in Google Photos for those devices.


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