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Google Lens now has its own standalone icon
- Google just released a Google Lens shortcut launcher on the Google Play Store.
- The new Google Lens update simply creates a home screen/app drawer icon to quick launch Lens.
- If you don’t have a phone that’s compatible with Google Lens, this new download won’t help you.
Launching Google Lens is pretty easy: long-press on the home button to launch Google Assistant, and then click the Lens icon in the lower right-hand corner.
However, what if you don’t use Google Assistant? Well, unless you want to get an LG G7 ThinQ so you can access Lens directly using the built-in hardware key, you didn’t have too many options. But now, Google Lens has its own standalone icon, as depicted in the image above.
To get the icon, just download the latest version of Google Lens by visiting the listing on the Google Play Store.
Keep in mind that this new update doesn’t do anything but give you a quick way to launch the app without using Google Assistant. The app itself is still a part of Google Assistant and downloading this new update won’t enable Google Lens on devices that don’t support it.
This is simply a way to launch Google Lens without going through Assistant or without using the LG G7’s hardware button. That’s it.
Still, it’s nice to know that Google is remembering that not everyone who wants to use Lens is also a regular Assistant user. In fact, Google Lens might be the “gateway drug” they need to start using Assistant more often. Giving people an icon shortcut into the program is helpful.
If you’re not aware, Lens is Google’s AI-capable viewfinder. When you launch the app, you can point your camera at things and Google will tell you about those things as best as it can. You can even use Lens to translate, copy, and search for text that appears in your viewfinder.
Download the standalone Lens icon at the link below.