Search Live Should Just Replace And Be Called ‘Google Lens’

Search Live feels like the spiritual, if not technological, successor to Google Lens. In fact, I think it should replace Google Lens entirely.

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This upcoming capability lets you have a back-and-forth conversation with Search, while surfacing a carousel of links right in the fullscreen interface. Besides voice (which looks to be the default mode), this includes sharing your camera feed to add real-time context to your question.

Google Lens today (as seen below) lets you append a text query with your image, while recording a video instead of just an image is already in testing. Even before Search Live, streaming real-time video felt like the next step. 

At I/O, Google first acknowledged Lens — and how it was announced on that stage in 2017 — before announcing Search Live as the “next big leap in multimodality.” For the company, it was a rare moment of continuity.

For existing users of Google Lens, the Search Live capabilities make for a huge next-generation upgrade. If this name change were to happen, it becomes an example of AI improving their existing tool instead of them having to go to a different place to use a new one.

On Android, more traditional visual search queries can be handled by Circle to Search. It feels like we’re already moving towards that as the redesigned Google Photos editor shown off today drops the “Lens” shortcut in the image viewer.

Google Lens is an already established icon in the Search bar and the homescreen widget on Android. It would be a straightforward redirect and better than introducing a new one. The interface shown off at I/O isn’t final, but Google is curiously using the same icon as Gemini Live (waveform badged with a sparkle).

More broadly, Search’s new AI-powered capabilities are facing an icon overload. AI Mode is a magnifying glass with a sparkle, with Google testing letting users set as an optional shortcut in the Search bar. At the current rate, Search Live as a distinct experience would need its own shortcut icon. Again, it would be better if Search Live just took the Google Lens position. More broadly, it will be interesting to see if the voice search microphone eventually just opens that Search Live mode.

Google could always make this branding change at any time in Search Live’s future, especially if it’s first launching as a Search Labs experiment, but giving it the Google Lens out of the gate would be bolder, while helping avoid any confusion with Gemini Live.

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