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I really don't like google lens. I've been searching for ways to turn it off. Searching on line usually brings up an answer like this:

On your Android phone, you go into your settings/apps and click on the 3 dots at the top right of the screen. Choose show system. Scroll down to the Lens, Qlens (or both depending on your phone) and then click Force Stop and Disable (if available). This should stop the service from running until you click on it again or it updates.

The problem is, when I do that on my Andriod phone there is no Lens nor Qlens listed among the apps (even after clicking show System Apps).

I did find one thing that says to "Disable" (or Uninstall, but Uninstall is not an available option, but disable more-or-less the same) the Google App, and re-enable it. This works, but only for about 1 day, after which Google Lens magically re-appears. For three days now I have Disabled the Google App once a day.

Is there any way to permanently get rid of Google Lens? It's horrible.

2 Answers 2

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This link shows how to disable the feature.

It's hard to follow at first, just replay it a few times.

Basically type chrome://flags in your chrome browser, which give you a "search flags" prompt, type in lens, then disable each of the items that appear. Type Relaunch (to relaunch Chrome); close Chrome; Lens will still be there. Re-boot phone; Lens is gone!

https://youtu.be/6PlEuLNPxqY

Good luck.

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  • This is the correct answer if you're coming from Chrome on desktop too, bothered by 'Search images with Google Lens' in context menu instead of 'Search Google for Image' that it used to be.
    – techolic
    Jan 3, 2022 at 3:40
  • 1
    This flag doesn't exist any more.
    – CpnCrunch
    Mar 24, 2022 at 21:26
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I discovered an approach that, at least for two weeks now, seems to have worked.

I tried a twist on this approach which I had mentioned above:

I did find one thing that says to "Disable" (or Uninstall, but Uninstall is not an available option, but disable more-or-less the same) the Google App, and re-enable it. This works, but only for about 1 day, after which Google Lens magically re-appears. For three days now I have Disabled the Google App once a day.

The "twist" is I did NOT re-enable the Google App. This seems to have permanently removed Google Lens (Yay!!), and I have not noticed any other functionality missing from my phone since I did not re-enabled the Google App. Yay!!

  • Update: It's been over three months and Google Lens has not come back since I implemented this approach! Very satisfied.
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