Google Lens can now search for images and text at the same time

In I/O 2021, Google announced that it is using a new technology called Multitask Unified Model to enhance its search engine capabilities. Then, in September of the same year, he showed how MUM will make it possible to search for images and text simultaneously within Google Lens. At the time, the company promised to launch multiple research "in the coming months." And while it doesn't use MUM to improve searches yet, it has begun beta testing for multiple searches.

Provided you are a US resident, you can try the feature in the Google app on Android and iOS. To do this, click on the lens icon and then swipe up after taking a new photo or importing an existing photo from the camera roll. Then tap on the "Add to your search" icon.

You can use this field either to ask you questions about the image or to refine your search. For example, you can take a picture of the rear carriage of your bike (the component that moves the chain from gear to gear) and then look for how to fix or adjust it yourself. By combining text and images, Google suggests that it is easier to complete searches as doing so using words alone can be difficult. After all, even most occasional cyclists do not know what a railway is or what it does.

As mentioned earlier, you can also use the feature to improve your searches. Let's say you saw a shirt with a pattern you like but want to know if that same style is available on socks and other clothes. You can type "white Victorian floral stockings" in Google, but again it will depend on having the fashion vocabulary to know what you want from Google, and even if you accurately describe what you see, the search engine may not produce useful results. For now, Google suggests that the feature works best when rolling out shopping-related searches like the one shown in the image above.

"All of this is made possible by recent advances in artificial intelligence, making it easier to understand the world around you in more natural and intuitive ways," Google said. "We're also exploring ways this feature can be improved by MUM – the latest AI model in search – to improve results for all the questions you might imagine asking."