Summary
- Google Lens makes search more convenient by allowing users to use photos instead of text queries.
- New improvements like Multisearch and Multisearch near me enhance the user experience with Lens.
- Google is finally rolling out a solution for users to retrace their search journey with Lens, through the activity dashboard.
Lens was one of the most useful additions to Google’s arsenal of Search tools, eliminating the sometimes challenging translation of photographic memory into words for a search query. Recent improvements in the form of Multisearch and Multisearch near me have made the user experience even more convenient, reducing the chances of resorting to textual search after using Lens. However, it’s not always convenient to retrace your Search journey involving Lens, but Google is finally rolling out a solution to that long-standing problem.
Google Lens: What it is and how to use it
Search, shop, translate, and more with Google Lens
Ever since Lens launched, users have had the choice of using a picture from their gallery app or snapping a photo using the shutter button in Lens to initiate a search. The chosen image is sent to Google for processing to surface relevant results, but if you snap a picture using the Lens integration, it won’t show up in your device gallery. This is a nice way to avoid clogging up your onboard storage with photos of random things which piquéd your curiosity, but on the other hand, there’s no way to retrace your search journey.
As a result, I often snap a photo using the Camera app on my phone, and then pick the image from the thumbnails in Lens, or just use the Lens shortcut in the Google Photos app. It’s clunky, but thankfully, the folks at 9to5Google noticed Google is rolling out a handy fix. As long as you’re using the Lens feature in the Google app, you’ll have access to your search history under myactivity.google.com alongside your text and voice search history. Images sent to Google servers for analysis but not saved to your device will be available here under entries like Searched with Google Lens. Hitting the Details option underneath should allow you to retrace your search journey.
However, we couldn’t see new options in the Details page, perhaps because the visual search history option is still rolling out gradually. Another important detail is that you may not see image history if you use Circle to Search or Lens integrations in other apps and services such as Google Photos. Moreover, users need to opt in for this convenience. A pop-up alerting you of this feature may appear the next time you use Lens, but you can always check if a checkbox for Visual Search History is available under Web & App Activity controls on the myactivity.google.com website to confirm availability.
Yes, visiting a website to track down your search history can be cumbersome, and we would love to see a quick shortcut to your history showing up in Lens directly, but this is a promising start in that direction. The rollout could take a few weeks, though.
