Psst: Come close. Your Android phone has a little-known superpower — a futuristic system for bridging the physical world around you and the digital universe on your device. It’s one of Google’s best-kept secrets. And it can save you tons of time and effort. Oh — and no, it isn’t Gemini. It’s a little somethin’ called Google Lens, and it’s been lurking around on Android and quietly getting more and more capable for years — since long before “AI” became part of our popular vernacular. Google doesn’t make a big deal about it, weirdly enough, and you really have to go out of your way to even realize it exists. But once you uncover it, you’ll feel like you have a magic wand in your pocket. At its core, Google Lens is best described as a search engine for the real world. It uses (yes…) artificial intelligence to identify text and objects both within images and in a live view from your phone’s camera, and it then lets you learn about and interact with those elements in all sorts of interesting ways. But while Lens’s ability to, say, identify a flower, look up a book, or give you info about a landmark is certainly impressive, it’s the system’s more mundane-seeming productivity powers that are far more likely to find a place in your day-to-day life. So grab your nearest Android gadget, go install the Google Lens app, if you haven’t already — or take your pick from any of the other smart Google-Lens-launching shortcuts — and get ready to teach your phone some spectacularly useful new tricks. [Hey — love shortcuts? My free Android Shortcut Supercourse will teach you tons of time-saving tricks for your phone. Sign up now and start learning!] Google Lens trick #1: Dive deep into your screen >In a mildly wild twist, the first and newest Google Lens goody in our list is also the oldest and most familiar one of all — at least, if you’ve paying attention in this arena for long. >It’s a snazzy new feature that lets you indirectly have Lens analyze whatever’s on your screen and then give you helpful extra context around it. >This one can actually be accessed via Google’s next-gen Gemini virtual assistant. Just summon Gemini, using the “Hey Google” hotword or any other method you like, then look for the tappable “Ask about screen” button within its overlay interface. The “Ask about screen” button within Gemini is a hidden way to access a powerful Lens feature.JR Raphael, Foundry While the answer is wrapped in Gemini, the technology powering it is the same stuff that’s been present within Lens for ages. And it’s every bit as impressive. Answers, on demand — from anywhere on Android.JR Raphael, Foundry >And if you’re feeling a pesky sense of déjà vu around this, well, you should be: Google first announced this latest iteration of the on-demand screen searching system more than two years ago, for the previous-gen Google Assistant system. Prior to that point, Assistant had briefly offered a similar sort of setup >without> Lens’s involvement. And prior to that, Google had a spectacularly useful native Android feature called Now on Tap, way back in 2015’s Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) era — though amusingly, we haven’t >quite> caught back up to that level of search intelligence just yet. >Hey, what can we say? It’s the Google way. Google Lens trick #2: Copy text from the real world From the virtual world to the physical world around us, Google Lens’s most potent power and the one I rely on most frequently is its ability to grab text from a physical document — a paper, a book, a whiteboard, a suspiciously wordy tattoo on your rumpus, or anything else with writing on it — and then copy that text onto your phone’s clipboard. From there, you can easily paste the text into a Google Doc, a note, an email, a Slack chat, or anywhere else imaginable. To do that, just open up Google Lens, point your device’s camera at any text around you, then tap the big circular search icon — and you’ll be able to use your finger to select the exact portion of text you want as if it were regular ol’ digital text on a website. All that’s left is to hit the “Copy” command in the pop-up alongside it, and every last word will be on your system clipboard and ready to paste wherever your thumpy little heart desires. You can copy text from anywhere — virtual or physical — with a little help from Lens.JR Raphael, Foundry Google Lens trick #3: Connect text to your computer Let’s face it: Most of us aren’t working only from our Android phones. If you need to get some real-world text onto your computer, Lens can handle that for you, too. Just go through the same steps we did a second ago, but this time, look for the “Copy to computer” option in the same pop-up menu. (You might have to tap a three-dot icon within that pop-up to reveal it.) As long as you’re actively signed into Chrome with the same Google account on a computer — any computer, whether it’s Windows, Mac, Linux, or ChromeOS — that option should appear. And when you tap it, you’ll get a list of all available destinations. Get any text onto your computer’s clipboard in an instant with Lens’s clever copying commands.JR Raphael, Foundry Pick the device you want, and just like magic, the text from the physical document will be on that computer’s clipboard — ready and waiting to be pasted wherever you want it. Hit Ctrl-V (or Cmd-V, on a Mac), and shazam! It’ll pop into any text field, in any app or process where pasting is supported. Google Lens trick #4: Hear anything out loud Maybe you’ve just been handed a long memo, a printed-out brief of some sort, or a letter from your dear Aunt Sally. Whatever it is, give your eyes a breather and let Lens read it for you while you’re on the go and between meetings. Just point your phone at the paper, exactly as we did before, and select some specific text within the image once more. This time, look for the little “Listen” option in the pop-up panel atop your image. Pound your pinky down on that bad boy, and the Google Lens app will actually read the selected text out loud to you, in a soothingly pleasant voice. Hey, Google: How ’bout a nap-time story while we’re at it?! Google Lens trick #5: Ask, ask, ask away In a move that now seems foreshadowing, Lens has the completely concealed ability to let you chat out loud and ask anything imaginable about whatever your device’s camera is showing. All you’ve gotta do to try it is open up Lens, aim your camera at something, and then press and hold Lens’s big search button. Then, you can simply speak aloud and ask anything on your mind in a completely natural, conversational way. Pressing and holding the Lens search button lets you talk and ask questions in a completely natural way.JR Raphael, Foundry Google’s official introduction of the feature involved asking questions about why some sort of product isn’t working as expecting or how you can fix some common real-world maintenance issue, but it can be every bit as helpful for practically any purpose — anytime you find yourself facing a question about something in front of you. This one, for now, seems to be available only within the U.S. and in English. Google Lens trick #6: Interact with text from an image In addition to the live stuff, Lens can pull and process text from images — including both actual photos you’ve taken and screenshots you’ve captured. That latter part opens up some pretty interesting possibilities. Say, for instance, you’ve just gotten an email with a tracking number in it, but the tracking number is some funky type of text that annoyingly can’t be copied. (This seems to happen to me way too often.) Or maybe you’re looking at a web page or presentation where the text for some reason isn’t selectable. Well, grab a screenshot — by pressing your phone’s power and volume-down buttons together — then make your way over to the Google Lens app. Tap the image icon in Lens’s lower-left corner, look for your screenshot in the gallery that appears, then tap it. And from there, you can simply touch your finger anywhere on the screen to select any text you want. (The same capability is also now present in the newer Android Circle to Search system, by the by, though that feature is still much more limited in its availability.) You can then copy the text, send it to a computer, or perform any of Lens’s other boundary-defying tricks. Speaking of which… Google Lens trick #7: Search for any text, anywhere After you’ve selected any manner of text from within the Google Lens app, look for the “Search” option within the pop-up panel that appears atop it. It’s all too easy to overlook, but alongside the other options we’ve gone over sits the simple and supremely useful “Search.” Keep that option in mind as a super-easy way to get info on text from any physical document or captured image without having to manually peck in the words on your own. (Sometimes, Lens will even put related results right within a panel beneath your image, without any additional searching required.) And on a related note… Google Lens trick #8: Search for similar visuals We already know that Lens can search for the text from an image. But the app is also capable of searching the web for other images — images that match the actual objects within whatever photo or screenshot you’re viewing. It’s a fantastic way to find visually similar images or even identify something like a specific phone model or product seen within a photo. To pull off this slice of Googley sorcery, open up an image of anything within Lens — or just point your phone at an object in the real world — then swipe up on the panel that appears beneath it and look for the “Visual matches” section. Searching for similar visuals is a smart way to get extra context about anything around you.JR Raphael, Foundry Google Lens trick #9: Save someone’s contact info If you find yourself holding a business card and thinking, “Well, blimey, I sure as heckfire don’t want to type all of this into my contacts app,” first, congratulate yourself on the excellent use of blimey — and then sit your beautiful person-shell back and let Lens handle the heavy lifting for you. Open Lens, point your phone’s camera at the card, and tap on the person’s phone number or email address. The Google Lens app should recognize the nature of the info and prompt you to add a contact. One more tap, and the deed is done. Google Lens trick #10: Email, call, text, or navigate Got an address or number you need to get onto your phone for a specific sort of action? It could be on a business card, on a letter, or even on the front of a random business’s door. Whatever the case, just open the Google Lens app, point your phone at it, and tap the text. (Or, option B: Snap a photo of the info in question and then pull it up in the Lens app later.) Once Lens sees it, it’ll offer to do whatever’s most appropriate for the sort of info involved. Then, with a single tap, you’ll have the address ready to roll in a new email draft, the number ready to call or text in your dialer or messaging app, or the website pulled up and ready for your viewing in your browser — no time-wasting typing required. Google Lens trick #11: Translate text from the real world If you ever find yourself staring at a sign in another language and wondering what in the world it says, remember that the Google Lens app has a built-in translation feature. To find it, open the app, aim your phone at the text, and tap the word “Translate” along the bottom edge of the screen. Before you know it, Lens will replace the words on your screen with their English equivalents (or with a translation in whatever language you select, if English isn’t your tasse de thé) — practically in real time. It’s almost spooky how fast and effective it is. srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/google-lens-android-translate.webp?quality=50&strip=all 800w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/google-lens-android-translate.webp?resize=289%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 289w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/google-lens-android-translate.webp?resize=768%2C798&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/google-lens-android-translate.webp?resize=671%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 671w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/google-lens-android-translate.webp?resize=162%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 162w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/google-lens-android-translate.webp?resize=81%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 81w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/google-lens-android-translate.webp?resize=462%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 462w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/google-lens-android-translate.webp?resize=347%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 347w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/google-lens-android-translate.webp?resize=241%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 241w" width="800" height="831" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px">Translation on demand, courtesy of Google Lens.JR Raphael, Foundry Pas mal, eh? Google Lens trick #12: Calculate quickly The next time you’ve got a numerical challenge in front of your weary peepers, give your musty ol’ brain a break and let Lens do some good old-fashioned solvin’ for ya. Just open up Lens and point your phone at the equation in question — whether it’s on a whiteboard, a physical piece of paper, or even a screen in front of you. Scroll over along the line at the bottom of the Lens viewfinder screen until you see the word “Homework” (and don’t worry: Despite what that label implies, you don’t have to be an annoyingly youthful and bushytailed student to use it). Tap that, then tap the big Lens search icon. And with everything from basic equations to advanced math, chemistry, physics, and biology, Lens will eagerly do your calculation for you and spit back an answer in the blink of an eye. I won’t tell if you don’t. Google Lens trick #13: Scan your skin Here’s a weird one: If you ever have some mysterious marking on your mammal skin and find yourself fretting over whether it’s a freckle or something more nefarious, take matters into your own hands and let Lens play the role of dermatologist for you. Just fire ‘er up on whatever Android phone you’re holding and point the viewfinder at your >wretch-inducing wart perfectly natural epidermal abnormality, then tap that Lens search button. Before you can spit out the words “Holy moley,” Lens will give you a best guess at what you’ve got goin’ on. Its results aren’t scientific, of course, but they are based on matching your marking to an endless array of examples Lens seeks out on the web — so they’re a fine way to put your mind at ease while you wait for an actual doctor to examine your suspiciously spotted outer layer. Google Lens trick #14: Crack the codes ‘Twas a time when Android code-reading apps were all the rage — and plenty of folks still have ’em hangin’ around today. So long as the Google Lens app is on your phone, though, guess what? You don’t need anything more. Just open up Lens, aim your camera at any barcode or QR code, and poof: Lens will offer to show you whatever that code contains faster than you ask “What does QR stand for, anyway?” Who needs a QR code reader when Lens is ready and waiting?JR Raphael, Foundry Being a mobile-tech magician has never been so satisfying. Get six full days of advanced Android knowledge with my free Android Shortcut Supercourse. You’ll learn tons of time-saving tricks for your phone!