Skip to main content

Bing Visual Search is a Google Lens competitor — with an extra feature

Visual Search

Microsoft wants searchers to be able to skip the keyboard and search not just with a photo, but within a specific part of that photo. Thanks to artificial intelligence, that feature is now arriving to the Bing app on iOS and Android. Visual Search, announced on Thursday, June 21, uses a camera or an existing photo to search or shop for objects, landmarks, and animals, or to scan a barcode. The Google Lens-like competitor is rolling out to the Bing app as well as Microsoft Launcher on Android and is also expected to head to Microsoft Edge and bing.com at a later date.

Recommended Videos

Visual Search uses a photo instead of a keyword to search the Bing platform, including both accessing existing photos and snapping a new photo in-app. Using object recognition powered by A.I., the tool can recognize a specific flower or a dog breed, along with recognizing places and landmarks. The Visual Search can also be used to shop, including taking a photo of a piece of apparel or furniture to find similar items.

Microsoft Bing

The tool is accessible from the camera icon inside the Bing app. For photos with multiple objects, the tool also includes an option to draw a box around the object that you would like to search for, instead of getting results for everything the program is capable of recognizing. That is one feature that may set the Bing Visual Search apart from other similar tools like Google Lens.

Microsoft says Visual Search expands on the A.I. already inside Bing Image Search, including a feature launched late last year for uploading a photo to find similar items in fashion and home furnishings.

Besides a photo being more descriptive than typing in keywords like “orange flower,” image-powered searches also help identify that item where the name slips your mind or that species of flower that you’re not familiar with. “Sometimes, it is almost impossible to describe what you want to search for using words,” Vince Leung, product lead for Bing Images, said in a blog post.

Bing isn’t the first platform to add the option to search with a camera — Google and Pinterest have similar image search options. Google Lens, along with flowers and landmarks, can also recognize books and album covers. The older but still young Lens can also read text in real time for tasks like taking a picture of a flyer to add an event. The iOS version inside Google Photos uses only an existing photo and not an in-app camera, however, and doesn’t have an option to specify one object in a photo of multiple items.

The Visual Search is rolling out now inside the Bing app on iOS and Android as well as Microsoft Launcher (Android only). Microsoft says the feature will also be coming to bing.com and Microsoft Edge.

Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Google Pixel 9 is getting a scam detection upgrade you’ll want on your phone
Google’s Scam Detection for calls on Pixel 9.

Over three months ago, Google started beta testing a new safety feature for Pixel phones that can sense signs of a fraud in voice calls using AI analysis. Today, Google has officially launched the Scam Detection feature for calls, alongside a similar con-screening system for messages.
Every year, smartphone users lose millions of dollars to elaborate schemes across the world. The problem is so rampant that the US Office of Inspector General and the Federal Trade Commission have published guidelines on recognising and reporting such deception.

Hearing calls to flag risks
To look for signs of scam in an ongoing call, Google is pushing the natural language understanding of on-device Gemini Nano AI on Pixel phones. The AI will listen to the ongoing telephonic conversation in  real time, and if it detects a risky pattern, an alert will pop up.

Read more
I put Google Gemini on my iPhone. Here’s why I’ll never go back to Siri
Siri in background and Gemini widgets on Lock Screen.

The AI frenzy has gripped every smartphone maker in 2025. Unfortunately, not all of it has been as revolutionary as on-stage presentations would have you believe. A few, however, have done a fantastic job with executing practical AI features.

Google is one of those names, and it continues to do so even on iPhones — at the cost of making Siri look like an outdated relic. The latest build of Google’s Gemini app for iPhones puts the AI chatbot everywhere on Apple’s smartphones, from the lock screen to the share sheet.

Read more
It’s now easier to get personal details removed or updated in Google Search
Button to request data removal from Google Search

In 2022, Google released a tool called Results About You that allowed users to request removal of personal information from Search results. Today, the company has announced that it is adding updated controls that will make the process even easier for getting certain details erased or have outdated information replaced with fresh one.

“Our new hub makes signing up easier than ever, and with proactive monitoring, we’ll do the hard work for you – alerting you if new results are found,” says the company. The more notable change is the ease at requesting changes to personal information that appears in Google Search results.

Read more