Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google Lens has changed its default behavior when launching.
- Rather than asking you to tap first to access your camera, Lens now starts right in your viewfinder.
- This change gives Lens come Circle-to-Search-speed for quickly initiating searches.
For better or for worse, Google has made a habit out of developing pairs of products that — if they aren’t in outright competition with each other — at least least duplicate a fair amount of the same functionality. We’ve had Gmail and Inbox, Duo and Meet, and Wallet and Pay. Right now, Circle to Search is one of our favorite new Android features, and it’s still getting better all the time. Functionally, though, Circle to Search looks a fair amount like a new way to access Google Lens. Rather than let this hotshot steal all the spotlight, Lens is picking up one small but important tweak that could go a long way towards making it feel just as responsive as Circle to Search.
One of the big parts of the appeal of Circle to Search is just how quickly you can dive into using it — just long-press your navigation bar or home button. Meanwhile, starting up Google Lens has been a bit of a slower process. So far, Lens defaulted to a split-screen view with a gallery of local images on the bottom, and your phone’s camera viewfinder up top. But before you could actually get started searching for anything up there, you’d have to tap through to confirm your intention to use the camera.
If you’re starting a Lens search from a gallery image most of the time, that arrangement could make sense, but considering how often we reach for Lens to search for something in real life with our camera, that workflow was a little awkward.
Well, Google has blessedly done something about just that, and 9to5Google has spotted that Lens on both Android and iOS now just dives right in to its camera viewfinder as soon as you fire it up. You can always tap or drag up from the bottom to get to your gallery for searching still pics, but Lens is finally committing to prioritizing camera input.
While Lens and Circle to Search still feel like two sides of the same coin, at least this move helps to sort of further differentiate them: Lens gets faster access to your camera, while Circle to Search remains quick to use on any still imagery you come across.