Apr 08, 2025 11:29:00

Google Lens now allows some users to use AI to analyze what is in the camera and get more in-depth information

Google offers an AI search feature called '

AI mode ' with advanced reasoning, thinking, and multimodal capabilities to subscribers of the Google One AI premium plan . As part of the new AI mode, a 'multimodal function that uses AI to analyze what is captured by the camera and search for in-depth information' has been added to Google Lens .

AI Mode in Google Search adds multimodal search
https://blog.google/products/search/ai-mode-multimodal-search/

AI mode now combines the powerful visual search capabilities of Google Lens with a custom version of Gemini to let you ask complex questions about what's in front of your camera. This builds on years of work on visual search and goes one step further.

Gemini's multimodal capabilities allow the AI mode to understand the entire scene in an image, including the relevance of objects in the camera and context such as material, color, shape, and placement. Leveraging object understanding, the AI mode can present multiple queries about the entire image and individual objects, providing access to a wider range of information and more depth than traditional Google search, Google explains.

For example, use Google Lens to take a photo of the spines of books lined up on a bookshelf, as shown below.

Try asking, 'If I enjoyed these, what are some similar books that are highly rated?'

The AI mode then understands the book in the image and collects and analyzes information based on the query.

It guessed what titles the user was likely to like from the titles on the spines of books, and then introduced me to a website that introduced highly rated books from those titles.

The answer also lists some recommended books. This user likes books about mindset and psychology, and recommended books such as '

Thinking, Fast and Slow ' by Daniel Kahneman and ' Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance ' by Angela Duckworth.

You can also ask more questions by tapping the input form or microphone icon at the bottom of the screen.

'I'm looking for a quick read, which book from the mindset section should I choose?'

He then told me that the book with the shortest page count of all the ones he recommended was '

Daring Greatly ' by Brené Brown.

The new Google Lens features are only available to users in AI mode, but the new feature is now available to Google One AI Premium plan subscribers, as well as Search Labs users in the US.