Google Lens now lets users save their Visual Search History, addressing the issue of lost images sent for analysis, Opt-in feature available gradually

Google Lens is introducing a highly-requested feature: the ability to save your Visual Search History, enabling you to revisit any analyzed image in the future.

It's important to note that when you use the shutter button in Google Lens, the picture taken isn't stored locally on your device. Instead, it's sent to Google for analysis and becomes inaccessible to you afterward. To work around this limitation, many users have adopted the practice of capturing images using their device's camera app and then initiating Lens from Google Photos.

Now, Google is addressing this issue by enabling automatic saving of Lens captures, allowing users to revisit these images whenever they need to. This functionality specifically applies to Lens usage within the Google app. Images from other sources, such as the Google Photos integration or Circle to Search, will not be included in this feature.

Similar to text and voice search results, users can access their Visual Search History by visiting myactivity.google.com. Here, all subsequent Google Lens searches will be listed, and users have the option to download images for re-analysis. While this process may require some manual effort, it's certainly preferable to losing access to valuable pictures indefinitely.

The new Visual Search History feature is an opt-in setting, disabled by default. Users can enable it by navigating to myaccount.google.com > Data & Privacy > Web & App Activity and checking the "Include Visual Search History" checkbox.

The rollout of Visual Search History begins today and will be gradually available to all users over the coming weeks. Additionally, users will receive a prompt about this feature within Google Lens via a pop-up notification.

Google Lens is introducing a highly-requested feature: the ability to save your Visual Search History