Google Lens Icon Added to Search Homepage, Street View App Reportedly Shutting Down in 2023

The Google Lens icon will prominently feature on the Google Search homepage from now on, the search giant has announced. Meanwhile, a recent report claims that Google plans to discontinue its Street View app in March 2023. Google Street View app allows users to take 360-degree views of almost any street around the world. This app also allows users to contribute their own 360-degree imagery for the Street View database. Notably, the more popular Google Maps app also offers 360-degree Street View support. There is also a Street View Studio web app for contributors to upload their 360-degree imagery.

The Vice President of Engineering at Google Rajan Patel announced on Tuesday that the Google Lens icon has finally been added to the Google Search homepage. The Lens icon now sits alongside the mic icon inside the searchbox.

On clicking the icon, users get the option to drag and drop, upload, or paste a file link. Google Lens offers search Search, Text, Translate, and Find image source tools that were added to the desktop version of Chrome earlier this year.

Meanwhile, as per a report by 9to5Google, the Google Street View app will be discontinued on March 31, 2023. The company has reportedly placed a few shutdown notices for the app in the latest update version 2.0.0.484371618. These notices are not publicly visible for now.

The leaked screenshots depict Google asking contributors to migrate to Street View Studio for uploading their 360-degree videos. Meanwhile, the Street View and Photo Sphere features are available on Google Maps.

However, the Photo Paths feature in the Street View app could go down with the app. It allows smartphone users to upload 2D photos of streets that are not on the Street View database. For now, there is no replacement feature available on Google Maps or Street View Studio for Photo Paths.