Microsoft Visual Search Comes to Bing, Edge, Launcher Apps to Take on Google Lens

Microsoft has introduced visual search to many of its services. Users can now open the phone camera to take a snapshot of something around them and search for it on the Web. This feature is live only for the US users for now using the Bing app on iOS and Android, and Microsoft Launcher for Android. Visual search capabilities have also begun rolling out for Microsoft Edge for Android, and will be coming soon to Microsoft Edge for iOS and Bing.com.

This works similarly to what you've been doing with Google Lens visual search, and you just need to take a photo using one of the above mentioned apps to search on Bing. You can also upload a photo from your camera roll to search for contextual link results based on that. For example, if you take a photo of a landmark, you may get more info about its history, travel info, and more. Clicking a picture of a flower or plant may throw relevant information like the name of the flower/ plant, its origin, etc.

Visual search can also be helpful in shopping, where you can just snap a photo of furniture you like, and look up all the sites that sell it. "You can even shop from your photos for fashion and home furnishings. Let's say you see a friend's jacket you like, but don't know its brand or where to purchase. Upload a pic into the app's search box and Bing will return visually-similar jackets, prices, and details for where to purchase," the Bing team notes on its blog.

Google announced visual search at I/O last year and called it Google Lens. It started rolling out Google Lens in Assistant in November, and is now available in six countries, namely, India, US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Singapore.