See it, search it: Google Lens is coming to YouTube Shorts in a new beta

You ever find yourself scrolling through YouTube Shorts, totally engrossed, and then you see something intriguing? Maybe it’s a stunning travel destination in the background of a video, a cool gadget someone’s using, or even a plant you’d love to identify. Well, getting more info on those visual tidbits is about to get a whole lot easier, because Google is starting to roll out a new beta that brings the magic of Google Lens directly into your YouTube Shorts experience; and it sounds pretty awesome!

The magic of Google Lens in your Shorts feed

This new integration means you’ll soon be able to use Lens to search what you see while you’re watching Shorts. Instead of trying to describe what you just saw in a search bar later, Google says you’ll be able to simply select an object right in the video to identify it and then dive deeper to learn about it. That’s a neat trick that could turn casual viewing into a helpful, informative discovery.

How to try it out once it arrives

Google has laid out how this new functionality will work once it appears in your YouTube mobile app:

1. First, open the YouTube mobile app and head to the Shorts player (either by tapping the Shorts tab or a Short you see on your Home feed).
2. When you see something you want to investigate, just tap the screen to pause the Short.
3. You should see a “Lens” option appear in the top menu – select that.
4. Then, you can draw, highlight, or simply tap on whatever you’re curious about in the video to initiate a search via Google Lens.
5. Your visual matches and search results will then cleverly overlay right on the Short, so you don’t completely lose your place. And from there, you can easily jump back into the content you were watching.

As this is a beta, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. During this initial phase, you won’t see any ads shown in the Google Lens search results that appear in Shorts. Also, the Lens experience won’t be available for Shorts that have YouTube Shopping affiliate links or feature paid product promotions.

According to the YouTube team, they are starting to roll out the beta to all viewers this week! Lens is already fantastic for visual search, and bringing it directly into YouTube Shorts just makes sense. I can’t wait to try this out on products, outfits, cool tech gadgets, or even just random interesting things that pop up in videos. It’ll definitely be interesting to see what sorts of discoveries it will lead to for sure.

VIA: 9to5 Google