Google Lens Gets Upgraded With New Video Feature That Utilises AI Overviews to Generate Responses

Holding down the Search button on the Google Lens interface now records a short video.

Written by Akash Dutta, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 1 October 2024 19:13 IST

Google Lens Gets Upgraded With New Video Feature That Utilises AI Overviews to Generate Responses

The Google Lens feature can be used to capture a moving object and ask about it

Highlights

The feature only works in regions where AI Overviews is enabled
The Google Lens feature was announced at Google I/O
Google Lens can record roughly a 20-second-long video

Google Lens is getting a significant update and will now support video recording. Users can use this feature to capture videos about objects and places they would like to run a quick web search about. The feature was first unveiled at Google I/O earlier this year, and it uses the capabilities of the company's in-house artificial intelligence model, Gemini. The feature is also integrated with AI Overviews, so it might not be available in the regions where the AI-powered search experience is not available.

Google Lens Gets Video Recording Capability

Gadgets 360 staff members spotted the feature within the Google Lens interface. Earlier, Google Lens would only let users capture an image and offer tools such as translation, image search, and homework which can look up a mathematical problem and find a solution for it online.

While the feature was useful for quickly translating street signs in a foreign language and looking up the name of a flower, it also had limitations. Users could not search for a moving object or run a detailed query about something. For instance, you could not snap a picture of a table and ask about the type of wood used for it. However, at Google I/O, the Mountain View-based tech giant unveiled a solution for it in the form of short video recording capability.

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Google Lens with video now allows users to record a roughly 20-second-long video and add a verbal prompt for the video. Once the recording is done, Google Lens uses Gemini-powered AI Overviews to run a search for it using the prompt spoken in the video.

AI Overviews then processes the data using computer vision and provides a response. In our testing, the feature was able to accurately identify moving objects, describe its colour and shape, as well as the material used for it.

This feature is currently rolling out to all users who have access to Google Lens and live in a region where AI Overviews is available. Using the feature is simple. Just open the Google Lens interface, and in the Search mode, long press the capture icon. The interface automatically begins recording a video.

The user, at this point, can say what they want to know about the video. Once done, Google Lens automatically opens Search within the Google app and AI Overviews begins generating a response. The response usually shows up within two to three seconds.

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Further reading: Google Lens, Google, AI, Artificial Intelligence, AI Overviews, Gemini

Akash Dutta Email Akash Dutta

Akash Dutta is a Senior Sub Editor at Gadgets 360. He is particularly interested in the social impact of technological developments and loves reading about emerging fields such as AI, metaverse, and fediverse. In his free time, he can be seen supporting his favourite football club - Chelsea, watching movies and anime, and sharing passionate opinions on food. More