(Microsoft Photo)

Microsoft today launched a new Visual Search capability within the Bing app that can identify objects in photos and give more information on them.

Users can take a photo of an object, such as a building or a plant, and Visual Search will try to identify it and offer additional information and links. For shopping purposes, the tool can also identify things like clothes and home furnishings, and uploading a picture into the Bing app search box returns similar products with prices and details of where to purchase them.

Visual Search builds on Bing’s “Intelligent Search” functions, which use artificial intelligence to compile information from multiple sources to ensure more accurate search results. Visual Search is similar to the Google Lens app that was introduced last year.

Visual Search is available starting today on the Bing App for iOS and Android and Microsoft Launcher. Microsoft is also starting to roll the capability out to the Microsoft Edge browser for Android, and it will soon come to Edge for iOS and Bing.com.

Microsoft said it plans to add more capabilities to Visual Search in the coming months and is encouraging input on the initial rollout.

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