6 ways I use Google Lens to make my life easier

Google Lens has been with us since 2017, and people have been using it in various cool ways to simplify their lives. According to Google, the AI tool uses your phone's camera to see what you see, and gives you more information about what you see. If you can see an item or object, the tool helps you get more details about it. That's the idea behind Google Lens.

Available via the Google App on iOS and Android phones, Google Lens was initially a Pixel-exclusive tool before being rolled out to other devices via Google Photos. It is a standalone application, and you can take advantage of its features to supercharge your productivity at home, work, or school. Here is how I use Google Lens to its full potential.

6 Translate text in real time

Use it as a convenient translator

Google Lens is great at translating text. If you are in a foreign country, studying a new language, or encounter a text you do not understand, the tool can help. It translates street signs, restaurant menus, and other text into 100+ languages. This removes the need for a translator, ensuring you understand everything quickly.

To translate text, open the app and point your camera at the text you want to translate. Highlight the text you wish to translate and tap Translate on the menu that pops up. The tool shows you the translation on the screen.

5 Save business card contacts

Create new business contacts conveniently

Despite the surging number of digital contact-saving options, business cards still offer an important way for businesses to keep tabs on clients or potential customers. According to statistics, around 10 billion business cards are printed every year in the United States. Similarly, approximately 68% of small enterprises consider these cards important for business.

Google Lens offers a way to make them even more impactful. While the feature of importing contacts from business cards is no longer available, you can still use it to save, search, and get more details about the contacts. It can scan a card and highlight details like name, email address, and phone number, allowing you to copy the details into your contact app.

To do this on your smartphone, point the Google Lens viewfinder at the card. The tool analyzes the card and highlights its content. Tap the contact to save it. You also get the option to call or text the contact. Swipe up to get more information about the contact on the card.

4 Get context around images

Become a digital investigator

Google Lens uses AI to help you understand an image or get more details about it, thanks to the About this image feature. For example, if you want context about an image you've been sent or seen online, it can help you see how it has been used online on other platforms. This is great for getting the original image source on the web and can help counter misinformation and identify AI-generated photos. If you have been chatting with someone on a dating app and are unsure who they are, use the feature to find out if it has been used anywhere else online.

It can also show an image's age online, which is great for differentiating between hoaxes and news. To use the feature on a desktop, identify the image on a Google Search page, click it, select the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner, and choose About This Image. Google shows you how old the photo is, other sites with the same photo, and when it was published.

To use it on your phone, access the Google Lens app, open the image, and swipe up to see more details about the items inside the image. You can also tap the small globe icon to see all the image sources on the internet.

3 Scan documents

Copy text from the real world

Through various platforms like email, Google Docs, and word processing tools like Microsoft Word, technology has tried its best to help us go paperless at home, work, and school. However, there are isolated cases when somebody sends or hands you a handwritten or hard copy of a document they should have submitted in soft copy. This is less inconvenient with Google Lens. The tool allows you to select text or writing from a physical document, be it a whiteboard, a book, or a paper, and then copy it onto your smartphone's clipboard, ready for pasting into a digital document.

To do this, access the Google Lens app, select Search, and point the camera at the text you want to copy. Tap it and select the area or text that you want to copy. Next, tap Copy text and paste it into a note, Google Doc, an email, or anywhere else you want.

2 Make your dining out experience more pleasurable

Use it as your next food critic

Restaurant trips are supposed to be a delightful adventure. However, they can be overwhelming when choosing what to try on the menu. This is especially true in exotic restaurants with less familiar names on the menu. Have you ever seen something appetizing in a restaurant, but are not sure whether to order it because you do not know what it is?

Google Lens can help you look it up. It scans the menu and cross-references it with different food images on Google Maps to tell you more about it. This is ideal for deducing dish ingredients, complete dishes, vegetables, and fruits.

Additionally, the AI tool can help you quickly calculate the tip when you are done enjoying your meal. Although eateries have cheat sheets that estimate tips based on percentages, this is a great option for those who dislike mathematics.

1 Find matches for furniture and clothing

Search for similar items

Besides searching for text or objects in an image, Google Lens can help you look for other images that match the object in your image across the web. This is a great way to find similar items or locate something specific, like a product or a watch model, within a screenshot or image.

Professional stylists and interior designers will find this useful as it helps them locate what they want in a specific outfit or room design to complement something else. The AI tool can master the decorations on a painting or a wall and show you items with similar patterns. It can also pick up different furniture designs and pull up identical or similar items. To do this, position the image in the Lens viewfinder and tap Search within the tool at the bottom.

Harness the power of Google Lens to ramp up your productivity

Google Lens is like a search engine in the real world. It utilizes AI to locate or identify items in images through your smartphone's camera to give you more details about them in various cool ways. If you can see it, Google Lens can also literally see it.

By effectively exploring Google Lens' capabilities, you can unleash its supernatural productivity powers, which can help make day-to-day life activities easier.