Google Lens Does More Than You Think
Most people know Google Lens can identify plants and landmarks. It can also translate text in real-time, copy text from physical documents into your phone, find where to buy something you photographed, solve math problems, and identify skin conditions. It’s one of Google’s most useful tools and one of the most underused. Here’s how to use all of it.
Opening Google Lens
On Android: Open the Google app → tap the Lens icon (camera shape) in the search bar. Or long-press the home button and tap the Lens icon. On some Android phones, Lens is built into the camera app.
On iPhone: Open the Google app → tap the Lens icon in the search bar. You can also use Lens in the Google Chrome app (long-press an image → “Search with Google Lens”).
On desktop: In Chrome, right-click any image → “Search image with Google Lens”. This works on any website.
Identify Objects, Plants, and Animals
Point the camera at something and tap the search button. Google Lens compares the image against billions of indexed images and returns its best guess. It’s accurate for common objects (products, landmarks, popular plant species, dog breeds) and less accurate for obscure items. The results show similar images, shopping links (if applicable), and informational links.
For plants: photograph a leaf, flower, or the whole plant. Lens identifies most common garden plants, houseplants, and weeds. It’s not a substitute for a botanist, but it’s good enough to tell you whether that thing in your yard is poison ivy.
Translate Text in Real Time
This is one of Lens’s best features. Select the Translate mode, point the camera at foreign text (a sign, a menu, a document), and Lens overlays the translation on the image in real time. The translated text replaces the original text in the same position and roughly the same style — it looks like the sign was printed in your language.
Supported languages: over 100. Works best with printed text (signs, menus, documents). Handwriting is hit or miss. You need an internet connection for translation.
Copy Text From Images
Select the Text mode, point the camera at any text (a document, a whiteboard, a book page), and Lens detects the text. Tap to select specific passages, then tap Copy to paste the text into any app. This is faster than retyping and more accurate than most OCR apps. It handles printed text nearly perfectly; handwritten text is decent if the handwriting is legible.
Shopping
See something you want to buy (clothing, furniture, accessories)? Photograph it with Lens in Shopping mode. Lens finds visually similar products across multiple retailers. It’s not perfect — it matches by visual similarity, so “that jacket Ryan Reynolds wore” might return similar jackets rather than the exact one — but it’s a starting point for finding where to buy something you saw in person or in a photo.
Homework Help
Point Lens at a math or science problem. Lens recognizes the problem and can show step-by-step solutions powered by Photomath (which Google acquired). This works for arithmetic, algebra, calculus, and some physics/chemistry problems. It’s a learning tool if used to check work and understand the steps; it’s a cheating tool if used to skip learning entirely. Your choice.