How to use Google Lens on Android to search with your camera

2 min read · 6 steps · Updated 2 October 2026

Short answer

Open the Google app and tap the Lens icon, the small camera at the right of the search bar. Point the camera at an object, plant, product or text and tap the Search button. Google shows what it is and where to find it. You can also pick a photo or screenshot from your gallery.

Google Lens searches with a picture where you would otherwise have to find words. It recognises products, plants, animals, buildings and text, and it is built into the Google app and into Chrome on every Android phone.

Names of buttons are from Google's own apps on a recent Android version. They can differ slightly on your phone.

Step by step

  1. Open the Google app or Chrome

    Tap the Lens icon in the search bar.

  2. Search with the camera

    Allow the camera if asked. Point it at what you want to know about and tap the Search button.

  3. Ask a question about it

    Press and hold the shutter button and speak your question, for example what kind of plant this is. Google says voice questions work in English for now. You can also tap Ask about this image under the results and type.

  4. Search with a photo you already have

    In Lens, choose a picture from the row of screenshots and photos under the camera view.

  5. Narrow it to one part of the picture

    Drag the corners of the box around the part you mean, for example one lamp in a photo of a whole room.

  6. Search an image on a website

    In Chrome or the Google app, touch and hold a picture on a web page and tap Search image with Google Lens.

Good to know

Lens also reads text in a picture. Tap the text or translate option under the camera view to copy words from a sign or letter, or to see a menu in your own language.

On recent phones the same search works without opening an app: how to use Circle to Search on Android.

To take text out of a photo and paste it elsewhere: how to copy text from a photo on Android.

Results for plants, mushrooms and medicines are suggestions and can be wrong. Do not eat or take anything on the strength of a picture search.

In short: Google app or Chrome, Lens icon, point and tap Search, or pick a photo, drag the box to narrow it. On websites: touch and hold an image.

Sources
  • Google Search Help: Search with an image on Google

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