New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS): Google Lens, one of the several free useful tools provided by the company, has crossed more than 500 million downloads on the Play Store.

Google Lens is an image recognition tool that was first showcased at Google I/O 2017. The search giant integrated this service into Google Assistant on Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL.

After that, it became available in Google Photos for both Pixels and other Android devices a few months later in 2018.

Google Lens can now recognise 15 billion things, up from one billion just two years ago, to help users identify plants, animals and landmarks, among other things.

Google earlier announced new ways users can use Google Lens and augmented reality (AR) while learning and shopping as part of its SearchOn event in October last year.

If you are learning a new language, Lens can translate more than 100 languages, such as Spanish and Arabic, and you can tap to hear words and sentences pronounced out loud.

From the search bar in the Google app on Android and iOS, you can use Lens to get help on a homework problem.

With step-by-step guides and videos, one can learn and understand the foundational concepts to solve math, chemistry, biology and physics problems.

Another area where the camera can be helpful is shopping -- especially when what you are looking for is hard to describe in words.

With Lens, you can already search for a product by taking a photo or screenshot.