This filters carousel sits above the bottom sheet that shows the results. There are seven different filters: Translate, Text, Search, Homework, Shopping, Places, and Dining. These filters were also present in the pre-July version of the app, although in a different form. As 9to5Google notes, there was an expandable row of icons with the same seven filters, in the same order. Google is now using text buttons that make it easier to understand for users. Google had removed this filters carousel from Lens with an update for the app in July. Instead, it offered contextual action suggestions. While those suggestions mostly worked fine, allowing access to all the available filters gives users more control. It was unclear why Google removed this ability but, thankfully, the company has now reinstated it. Perhaps it was working on replacing the icons with text buttons.
Google is preparing more new features for Lens
Google Lens is a quite powerful visual search tool and it is only going to get better from here. At Google I/O in May, the company had unveiled a machine learning model named MUM (Multitask Unified Model) to improve Search. It last month announced that MUM will be coming to Lens as well. This new AI-powered capability will let users refine Google Lens search results with text inputs. After you have captured an image, Lens will analyze it to show visual matches. But with the upcoming change, you will be able to add text commands to refine the results. For example, if you’re looking for a pair of socks with a certain pattern, you can click the picture of that pattern and add the command “socks with this pattern” for more refined results. There are also many other use cases, of course. This feature will be rolling out in Google lens in the coming months. Until then, the visual search tool is re-gaining a feature it lost a few months back. The latest change is available with version 12.41 of the Google app, which is now rolling out in the Google Play Store. You can click the button below to download the updated Google app.
