Google went into great detail explaining the new Lens feature, which will be a part of Google Assistant. The company has used the same AI algorithms to identify objects as Google Photos, which is pretty impressive to begin with. It can also be considered to be an advanced version of Google Goggles which was originally launched in 2011.
Now that Google has officially launched a feature like Google Lens, some comparisons were bound to be drawn with Samsung’s new Bixby Vision which was unveiled with the Galaxy S8. However, upon having a closer look, one can ascertain that Bixby Vision is nowhere close to Google Lens in terms of functionality and AI prowess.
No contest
Bixby Vision is Samsung’s first official attempt at AI, and the company still has a lot of work to do. Initial reviews have suggested that the platform isn’t as stable as the company makes it out to be. Image search isn’t accurate all the time, and that’s mainly because Samsung relies on third parties for its data. Google, on the other hand, has years of knowledge to bank on and its own data repository, which gives Google Lens the upper hand here.
Coming to almost all Android users
If Google Lens is built into Assistant, there’s a possibility that the company could bring this feature to millions of Android smartphones and tablets. Since Google Assistant is finally compatible with non-Pixel phones, the day shouldn’t be far away. Interestingly, Assistant is coming to iOS as well, although we’re not too sure if Google will bring this feature to the platform right away.
Fast and efficient
As shown by Google during the I/O demo, Lens is very snappy and helps you get results almost instantaneously. You can take a picture of a flower and ask Google to identify it, or simply post a picture of a popular hoarding and Lens will tell you what it’s about. You can even take a picture at a restaurant for Maps to pull out relevant reviews. Users might be required to enable location data for this particular feature to work, though.
Google Lens is by no means a feature that you will use every day. But it’s something that can come in handy when you’re looking to find some relevant information and all you have is an image or a camera with you.
Nobody could have envisioned the kind of advancements Google would make when Goggles was first launched six years ago. Users should be able to use Google Lens on their smartphones over the coming weeks when Google pushes the update via Assistant.
