Google makes its Lens technology available to KaiOS used on JioPhone

New Delhi: Google on Tuesday said users of KaiOS—which powers smart feature phones such as JioPhone and HMD Global’s Banana Phone (Nokia 8110 4G) —will now be able to use Google Lens on their phones to read and translate words in real-time.

Google Lens is an image recognition technology that is designed to bring out relevant information related to objects it identifies using visual analysis.

In a blogpost, Google said the company has been adding features like integrated voice typing on KaiOS, voice-based language selection, and support for Indian languages to help “first-time internet users overcome barriers to literacy and interact with technology and their devices more naturally”.

“Today, we are extending this capability to the millions of Google Assistant users on KaiOS devices in India. From Assistant, they can click the camera icon to simply point their phone at real-world text (like a product label, street sign, or document, for example,) and have it read back in their preferred language, translated, or defined,” it added.

Users will need to long press the centre button from the home screen to get started with the assistant.

The feature is currently available for English and many Indian languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi and Tamil, and will soon be available in Kannada and Gujarati.

“This is another step in our commitment to make language more accessible to everyone, and we hope this will enable millions of KaiOS users across the country to have a more seamless language experience,” the company said.

According to KaiOS’ website, it has been deployed in over 100 million devices globally, and supports more than 300 apps. The company has raised more than USD 80 million from various investors, including Cathay Innovation, Google and TCL Holdings.