Google rolls out dining and translation filters to Lens

Google Lens users on iOS and ARCore-compatible Android phones are getting some added utility when it comes to ordering at restaurants or translating foreign languages on-the-go.

The functionality was announced earlier this month at Google I/O. Users can access Lens in the Google Assistant, Google Photos and main Google search apps. It’s also baked directly into the camera app on Pixel phones.

With the new “dining” features, users can point their phone at the menu and the Lens app will highlight the most popular dishes on the menu or surface food information and photos from the restaurant’s Google Maps profile. The company also detailed that you would be able to snap a picture of the bill and split the bill directly.

On the foreign language translation front, the Google Translate app has long enabled language translation of signs that matches the style and typeface of what’s being parsed, but now a more lightweight version of this functionality is cooked directly into Lens.

Google has generally liked to take their sweet time when it comes to rolling out any I/O announcements related to Lens, so the promptness of this launch just a few weeks after the conference is a bit surprising.