what you need to know
- Google Lens is rolling out an update to users that adds visual search history to their accounts.
- Visual search history allows users to rediscover content they’ve searched for via Lens, while also downloading photos from the cloud.
- Users must enable the feature in their account for Lens to start retaining their visual searches.
Google Lens is launching a feature today that gives users a convenient way to rediscover things they’ve visually searched for in the past.
As 9to5Google discovered, users can now find their visual search history within their Google account. This Lens feature is said to be an “opt-in” feature, meaning users must enable it in their settings beforehand.This can be done by hopping into your Google account and going to Data & Privacy > Web & App Activity > Includes visual search history.
When turned on, Lens is said to automatically retain content it captures (presumably based on the size of the cloud) so users can rediscover content they’ve searched for.
However, the functionality of this feature seems to be limited as users can only take advantage of this feature within the main Google app. Leveraging lenses in the Camera app will not save search results for that photo to your account. Likewise, searching for images from Google Photos will not be saved.
Users can also save photos by rediscovering content you’ve previously searched for using Lens in your visual search history.
What’s important here is that Google Lens includes better visual search history, which means everything isn’t lost immediately. Lens does not save photos taken while the user is active, meaning it is only temporarily retained until the search is complete and then discarded.
Google’s new visual search history isn’t showing up everywhere, probably because the feature is still being rolled out. It’s best to give the company a few days before it’s all available. Additionally, the publication notes that users who receive visual search history may see a prompt introducing the visual search history.
The addition of visual search history may help with other Lens features, such as multi-search. This option can help those looking for multiple items of clothing, as users can combine photos with text descriptors to refine their searches. Langs also gained the ability to help students with their math homework, and had a way to rediscover those pesky problems that could help those nights of study.