Google Lens is a visual search tool available in the Google app (Android and iOS) that uses artificial intelligence to identify text and objects both within images and in a live view from your phones camera. It can help make your life easier in many ways, including:

• Search what you see: With Google Lens, you can search what you see with your camera, take a picture or a screenshot, or long press an image you see while browsing, and get a range of visual results to explore. For example, if you see a cool building or landmark that you don’t recognize, Lens can tell you what you’re looking at and provide links to learn more. Similarly, whether on the road or in your own backyard, it’s not uncommon to discover plants and animals that you can’t quite clock or describe perfectly with words. Lens helps you search what you see and learn all about it.

• Product search: If you’re browsing on your phone and notice a product that you’d love to get your hands on, you can use Lens to find and buy one of your own. Just take a screenshot and select it in Lens, and you’ll get a list of shoppable matches with links to where you can make a purchase.

• Text recognition: Google Lens can grab text from a physical document, a paper, a book, a whiteboard, or anything else with writing on it, and then copy that text onto your phones clipboard. From there, you can easily paste the text into a Google Doc, a note, an email, a Slack chat, or anywhere else imaginable.

• Object recognition: Google Lens can identify objects by reading barcodes, QR codes, labels, and text, and show relevant search results, web pages, and information. For example, it can recognise a hand and suggest the thumbs up emoji, or point it at a drink, and it will try and figure out what it is.

• Connectivity: Google Lens can take a picture of the SSID sticker on the back of a Wi-Fi router, after which your phone will automatically connect to the Wi-Fi network without you needing to do anything else.

Google Lens is also integrated with other Google apps, like Google Photos and Google Assistant, and can be used from a few other potentially useful places on your phone.