Google Lens
Hacker ApprovedRanked 16 of 38 search engines by recommenders
People use it to translate and copy text from photos and identify plants and objects. Critics say results are sometimes wrong, such as misidentified artwork details.
People use it to translate and copy text from photos and identify plants and objects. Critics say results are sometimes wrong, such as misidentified artwork details.
25 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 21
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 84%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 21 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Extracts and translates text from images
“I have been using google lens heavily to scan posters/flyers/information displays in other languages and get it translated to english in like 2-3 seconds.”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “How Will OpenAI Compete?” “I find the google lens thing in Chrome very handy - does ocr, finds stuff in images etc.”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook” “I use it several times a day just to change text in image form to text form”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “OpenAI's cash burn will be one of the big bubble questions of 2026” - Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla”
Identifies plants, objects and things
“I can take a photo of something and get back what it is and some information about it.”
Comment from 21 Aug 2026 in “Google replaced Git tags for certain source code with obtaining via Google Drive” “Google Lens will tell you what a plant is”
Comment from 17 Jul 2026 in “Blatant AI slop just won a 25k USD DeepMind Kaggle Grand Prize” Handy and used frequently
“the Google Lens tool is very handy and gets used often.”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent” “Google Lens has surprisingly high usage”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “OpenAI's cash burn will be one of the big bubble questions of 2026” “google lens in chrome is very handy”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “I hate screenshots of text” Good accuracy in many cases
“If I show them to Google Lens the accuracy is good.”
Comment from 12 Apr 2026 in “Why AI Sucks at Front End” “it read the whole thing with pretty good accuracy”
Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: AI search for every photo and every frame of video on macOS” “Google Lens will get it right”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “I failed to recreate the 1996 Space Jam website with Claude”
Other search engines people recommend
The four most recommended other search engines, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kagi | 732 | 234 | 76% | 13 | 2 yrs106 owners | Approved |
| Google Search | 315 | 1,039 | 23% | 12 | 20 yrs25 owners | — |
| DuckDuckGo | 286 | 204 | 58% | 12 | 3.5 yrs47 owners | — |
| Hister | 81 | 9 | 90% | 9 | 2 mo17 owners | Approved |
| Google LensThis page | 21 | 4 | 84% | 10 | — | Approved |
What people said
30 of the 35 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it read the whole thing with pretty good accuracy”
“I can take a photo of something and get back what it is and some information about it.”
“Google lens is fine, it does work.”
“the built in Google Lens tool is cool”
“Google Lens will tell you what a plant is”
“Google's OCR through my phone's Google lens had also worked at getting a very good extraction but not 100% correct.”
“I can already do that with my phone and google lens.”
“the lens thing built into Chrome so you can search images as well as text”
“Google Lens on that coat or bag”
“I find the google lens thing in Chrome very handy - does ocr, finds stuff in images etc.”
“the Google Lens tool is very handy and gets used often.”
“It solves an actual problem”
“The only thing Google Lens has succeeded at for me is age, race, and location.”
“If I show them to Google Lens the accuracy is good.”
“I have been using google lens heavily to scan posters/flyers/information displays in other languages and get it translated to english in like 2-3 seconds.”
“it showed the same piece but confidently listed the artist and year wrong by about 300 years”
“Looks like a TOS violation to me to scrape google directly like that.”
“just take a picture of the screen on your phone with Google Lens”
“I use it several times a day just to change text in image form to text form”
“Google Lens has surprisingly high usage”
“like Chrome's Lens, I'd need to highlight sections for it to get translated.”
“holding a camera/tablet up to my screen isn't very comfortable”
“it's not as easy to use as just holding my phone up”
“my mother who is really not tech affine loved what google lense can do”
“The last feature was the sidebar and Google lens integration.”
“Text selection used to be frustrating on mobile for me too until Google fixed it with OCR”
“Google Lens will get it right”
“Google Lens is also very handy especially for text in image format”
“google lens in chrome is very handy”
“it can read QR codes but doesn't let you copy the URL”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.