Learn how Google Lens became my must-use camera translator and why I always trust it to translate from the camera when no other app performs as accurately.
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Google Lens is a must-have app if you usually travel and need to translate something quickly; it’s much better than other AI tools.
Google Lens is one of the youngest applications that the company has, since its presentation took place at Google I/O 2017, its usual and particular developer conference.
Back then, Google Lens was a substantial change in the wide variety of functionalities offered by the camera and, precisely, it was masterfully added to the native application of Android mobiles.
Despite everything it can offer, there is something that I have always used from the first moment and that I consider essential for anyone who travels to places whose language they do not know, as it will be the best application you can have by your side.
And it’s your real-time translation of any image you can capture with your camera.
It is true that with the unstoppable advance of generative artificial intelligence tools, such as Gemini or ChatGPT, this may sound outdated, but the only one that has been 100% reliable, for the moment, is Google Lens.
Not only because of its fairly well-achieved translations, but also because it’s one of those apps that you won’t use often, but that you’ll always have available through the camera. And not all of them achieve that.
Google Lens has few alternatives beyond Apple and Samsung
Although it is clear that many generations have been born with technology under their arms, in the case of the so-called boomers, people born during the 60s approximately, the mobile phone has meant a before and after.
On one of the last trips I made through different towns in the Basque Country, I came across numerous posters in Basque, a language that I don’t know beyond basic words, so I had to use Google Lens almost always to translate posters and images that I came across.
My parents, from that generation, were surprised by this functionality of Google Lens, and its use became almost necessary for them. Which led me to an immediate conclusion: this tool is very useful.
I’ve tried to try several alternatives to Google Lens, and I think the only options that manage to bring out the functionality of its cameras are Samsung’s Bixby Vision and Apple’s iPhone’s camera-based feature.
In any case, Google Lens has some disadvantages, such as the impossibility of working locally, beyond the languages available offline that you can download, which implies that your data is being processed on the company’s servers.
This shouldn’t be a problem, although other options do offer the choice of offline mode, which would come in handy for Lens in the future.
Is an AI app or Google Lens better?
I have also tried several options that have to do with generative AI, such as Google Gemini and ChatGPT.
In the case of the former, it is the most accessible if you are an Android user, as it is integrated directly by pressing and holding the lock button, so you will have an AI voice assistant, without having to type.
However, these AI assistants—with their own independent application on your mobile phone—have the disadvantage that you will spend much more time if you only need a translation, since you will have to upload the photograph and enter the prompt.
Unlike ChatGPT or Gemini, which ask you to attach a file to recognize the text, Google Lens is directly active in the camera, so the translation is done live, without even the need to take the photograph.
Therefore, it is best to use this type of artificial intelligence tool in case you need a broader context than simple translation and leave Google Lens to the task for which it was born.
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