Google Photos silently added deeper integration with Google Lens. The new tools are available when you touch the lens icon while viewing a single item in the Google Photos app.
According Android Police, the tools make it easy to search within a photo directly from the Photos app. With the tools integrated with Photos, you can touch the text selected by Lens, translate, copy, search and transfer it to a PC connected to Google. Having the features integrated with Google Photos means that you don’t have to switch between multiple apps.
Images via Android Police
It is unclear when these Google Lens tools were integrated with Photos, but it is part of Google’s larger effort to bring Lens’s capabilities to other Google experiences. For example, Google has imbued its official Camera and Search apps with lens capabilities. Google has also made Lens more powerful in general, introducing a new educational way to solve mathematical problems, integration with Google Shopping and more.
According Android Police, sources say the new Google Photos interface for text recognition is new, although it is unclear how widely the tools are available. You need Google Lens and Google Photos to take advantage of deeper integration.
If you’re a Google Photos user, a big meeting is on the horizon. The service will begin to limit free storage from June 1st. Google said that free users would be limited to the 15 GB of complementary storage that comes with each Google Account. After that, you will have to pay monthly for a Google One subscription, which starts at $ 1.99 per month ($ 19.99 per year) for 100 GB.
In addition to the transition to a subscription model, Google has introduced premium features in Photos in recent months. Premium features, including advanced video editing tools, are only available to subscribers.