Google Lens today is primarily a visual lookup tool for mobile devices, but it’s been branching out to Chrome. The next expansion could see Google Search on the desktop web add Lens.
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QR codes have been around for years, but they were underused in the time when they required a separate app to be installed in order to use them. Now, just about every phone, including Google’s Pixel lineup, has a QR scanner built-in, but according to a recent report, Google’s phones have been misreading some codes.
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For two products that should be very important to Google, Assistant and Lens had a quiet 2021 compared to even the year prior. Fortunately, the lack of movement seems to be due to upcoming advancements being not quite ready yet.
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In time for last-minute holiday shopping, Chrome for Android is getting a particularly useful price drop tracker right in the tab grid.
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Google, in partnership with American Express, is marking Small Business Saturday this weekend with “shoppable murals” in four US cities that promote both local shops and Google Lens.
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Last month, Google announced a big upgrade for Lens that’s coming next year, and that the visual search tool is coming directly to Chrome. Until then, the Google Lens UI on Android is seeing a tweak that lets you easily reanalyze images with a different filter.
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In addition to the big MUM upgrade that lets you ask questions about a photo, Google Lens is getting more prominent on iOS and in desktop Chrome.
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At I/O in May, Google announced Multitask Unified Model (MUM) as a big improvement to Search. MUM is now set to come to Google Lens “early next year.”
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Google recently redesigned Lens to prioritize screenshot analysis over live capture. Google Lens is now seeing a Material You flourish and even more prominent placement on Android.
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Over the weekend, the new Google Assistant on Pixel phone started losing its original translucent UI. The design that replaced it is now appearing on other (non-NGA) Android devices with minor tweaks – a shorter panel – and greater emphasis on Lens.
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Google Chrome for desktop is set to gain a handy screenshot tool, complete with Google Lens integration, which should replace screenshot extensions.
Update: The Google Lens integration is now live in pre-release builds of Chrome.
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Last week, Google started running ads on TikTok that promote several aspects of Google Lens, as well as Hum to Search. The clear goal of these five TikTok videos is to raise awareness about newer Google features that people might not have used before.
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In a significant expansion, Google is bringing its Lens visual search tool to the desktop web via the Chrome browser.
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Google is rolling out a redesign of the dedicated Lens app on Android that greatly de-emphasizes the live viewfinder. Rather, the focus is now on analyzing existing images and screenshots in your camera roll.
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Lens will be an important part of Google’s augmented reality future, but it’s one of the harder products to get people to continually use. That’s not due to a lack of trying on the company’s part, but the latest effort takes the form of straightforward online ads for Google Lens.
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Lens will only become more important going forward, but Google’s challenge in the meantime is raising awareness about its extensive set of capabilities. Some tweaks to Google Lens now aim to simplify how visual search works.
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Alongside Live View directions in Maps and 3D Animals, Lens is one of Google’s key investments in augmented reality. Google UK is now promoting the visual search tool with a “Behind the Lens with Google Pixel” promo campaign.
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Google’s biggest consumer-facing augmented reality offerings today are Lens and Live View in Maps. At WWDC 2021, Apple announced it was planning to go after those two features with iOS 15 this fall.
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For a few months now, Chrome for Android has had an easy shortcut to search for an image you find online using Google Lens. Now it seems Chrome for Android may be gaining more handy Google Lens shortcuts.
Update 4/29: This feature has begun to roll out in Chrome Beta for Android.
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Google Lens has begun to appear in the Pixel Launcher’s search bar side-by-side with the Google Assistant, in a new test.
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When taking screenshots in Android 11+, a preview appears in the bottom-left corner for quick sharing or editing. A translate suggestion from Google Lens now also appears here on applicable screen captures.
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Besides being its own app, Google Lens is also available in Image Search, Photos, and integrated across Android. Google is now bringing Lens to the desktop web inside Google Photos for convenient text copying through optical character recognition (OCR).
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Even after trawling through almost all aspects of the recent Android 12 Developer Preview, things slip the net. One of those looks to be the long-overdue addition of a Google Lens translate option within the Android recent apps panel.
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Google Lens has long been part of Google Photos to help you visually search images. On Android, Google Lens is now a more prominent part of Photos by identifying what pictures would benefit from the analysis and search tool.
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