7 surprisingly useful ways to use Google Lens beyond basic search

Google Lens is a powerful tool that makes it incredibly easy to understand the world around you. Just point your phone’s camera at a subject, and it gives you the relevant information. And because Google Lens is deeply integrated with Gemini, you can follow up with any doubts or questions to get answers.

You may already know about Google Lens or use it on your phone to identify plants and animals, translate text, solve Math problems, or even find what’s on your screen. But its usefulness doesn’t end there. Google Lens has plenty of other use cases that you should know about.

Identify and buy items

A handy day-to-day application of Google Lens is identifying items and finding where to buy them. These items can be anything from a fancy lamp at a restaurant or a vintage watch you saw at an exhibition to obscure items like a screw for your watch’s back plate or a remote controller for a decade-old TV.

Since you’re essentially showing Google what you need, you have a really high chance of finding relevant information or the exact product itself. If it’s too obscure and Google Lens can’t identify it properly, you can add more context to get better results. When Google Lens identifies a product, it also returns direct links to websites where you can purchase it.

Decode laundry tag symbols

Figuring out what laundry symbols on your clothes mean isn’t easy, even if you’ve been doing laundry for years. Although many brands add text labels next to symbols on their laundry tags, some skip them to save space and keep the tags small.

With Google Lens, deciphering laundry symbols on such clothes becomes easy. When you search for a laundry symbol in Google Lens, it explains what it means, its implications, and alternative care methods you can opt for. You can even tell it what garment the symbol is on for a more fitting response.

Understand symbols on your car’s dashboard

Your car’s dashboard displays many symbols. Most of the time, they’re informational and nothing to worry about, but sometimes they’re cautionary and require attention. Many modern cars display a descriptive message on the infotainment screen, explaining what’s wrong, but if yours doesn’t, Google Lens can be a lifesaver.

Asking Google Lens what the symbol on your car’s dashboard means returns a bunch of information. This includes everything from what could have triggered it and its potential implications to what you can do next. If it isn’t a standard dashboard symbol and Google Lens can’t properly identify it, specify your car’s make and model. This narrows down the search scope and increases your chances of identifying the symbol. You may also use it to find out what the symbols on your bike’s instrument cluster mean.

Troubleshoot problems with your devices and appliances

Just like a car, your devices and appliances can run into problems from time to time. In most cases — unless it’s a hardware problem — you can fix these issues with the right guidance. Sure, you can use Google Search to identify the problem and find a fix, but it can sometimes be too complicated to explain.

For example, let’s say you see an error code on the screen every time you boot up your Windows PC. Using Google Lens on your phone, you can quickly snap a picture of the error code to find out what it means and the possible ways to fix it. If something doesn’t work or you start seeing a different error code, you can go back and forth with Gemini to seek more help.

Make better sense of nutrition labels

If you follow a strict diet, you probably check a food item’s nutrition label before you eat it. Unfortunately, not all brands offer clean labels; you may see chemical names and identifier codes (mostly for additives) that you’ve never heard of. In this scenario, instead of looking up these ingredients on Google Search one by one, you can learn more about them in Google Lens.

A Google Lens search on a nutrition label gives you a detailed breakdown of every ingredient, explaining what it is, its typical purpose, and how it affects the body. If something’s still unclear or you want more information, like whether an ingredient could worsen your allergy or whether it’s safe to eat with your health condition, you can ask a follow-up question.

Get ingredients and recipes for dishes

In addition to helping you make better sense of nutrition labels, Google Lens can break down ingredients and recipes for dishes. This can be really handy when, say, you like a dish you ordered at a restaurant and want to know all its ingredients and how to prepare it.

Depending on how authentic your dish looks, Google Lens first tries to identify it, then gives you its name, followed by the ingredients and an easy-to-follow recipe. You can prompt it if you need help with any step. Similarly, you can ask for substitute ingredients if the ones it initially listed aren’t available at home. Just note that you may not get reliable results for lesser-known dishes or regional delicacies.

Copy text on real-world objects

Ever been in a situation where you wanted to note something down from a pamphlet, storefront, or billboard on your phone? It could be anything — an instruction, a street address, or even a phone number. Instead of typing it manually, you can use Google Lens’ OCR feature to extract text from these and other real-world objects around you.

Open Google Lens and point the camera at the text in front of you. Tap the select text button, and Google Lens will highlight the text. Adjust the selection if required, then tap Copy in the floating toolbar. Go to the app you want to save it in and paste the selected text. You can also translate the selected text or listen to it. Similarly, if it’s a phone number, you can tap the Call or Text button to call or text it. Or tap the Email button if the selected text is an email address.

I’ve used Google Lens for all of the above tasks. However, if I had to pick my favorite use cases, they would be finding obscure items, understanding nutrition labels, and troubleshooting devices. I’ve generally been impressed with Google Lens’ responses and have found them quite helpful.

If you haven’t used Google Lens beyond basic tasks, give it a shot the next time you get a chance. The Google Lens app is also available for iOS, so you don’t need an Android phone to use it.