The new arrival in recent hours on WhatsApp consists of a new function to quickly search for images on the web, from the same images that we receive in the chat. The functionality is simple to use: if we receive an image in the chat and we want to delve deeper into its origin, the subject it covers or simply find out more, just select the context at the top right, then choose the Search the web option. At this point we will see a warning banner to indicate that this procedure will launch an image search on the web. From the tests we have carried out, since we have already received the news on our WhatsApp Beta Android application, we have realized that the web search is launched directly through
Lens. A new tab will then open on your browser, with the Lens tool allowing you to find out more about the selected image. This is certainly not a revolution, given that, especially on Android, the most recent smartphone models offer various quick image search services. Google Lens, for example, can be started directly from the Android multitasking menu, and a similar path can be done by calling up Google Assistant or Gemini on your device.
However, the new WhatsApp feature makes everything easier and faster. In this way, the image search will be directly integrated into the WhatsApp application, regardless of the smartphone model you are using and the version of the operating system you have. Let’s imagine different use cases: they could be useful to us, for example, if we want to check if an image received in the chat is authentic, if we want to deepen a topic related to the subject of the image, or if we want to know more about a product that we find in the image received. As mentioned above, some users can already use the new feature that WhatsApp has just introduced. In fact, the new function is already automatically distributed to some of the users who joined the beta version of WhatsApp for Android. At the moment we have no news of a distribution for iOS users of WhatsApp.