Use Lookout to explore your environment

To get info about your surroundings, use Lookout. It uses the camera and other sensors on your Android device to tell you about objects and text nearby.

What you need

To download and use Lookout, make sure that your device is Android version 6.0 or up. Learn how to check and update your Android version.

  • Supported languages: Bengali, Chinese (simplified), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Marathi, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese.

Install and turn Lookout on

  1. On your Android device, open Google Play app Play Store.
  2. Search Lookout – assisted vision.
  3. Tap Install.
  4. To start Lookout, you can either:
    • Say 'Hey Google, start Lookout'.
    • On your device, in the Apps section, tap Lookout Lookout.
  5. Follow the on-screen prompts to:
    1. Select an account.
    2. On the welcome screen, watch the introduction to Lookout tutorial.
  6. To let Lookout take pictures and record video, tap either While using the app or Only this time.
  7. Tap Allow.

Tip: When you use Lookout, make sure that you hold your device so that the camera faces outwards.

Use Lookout modes

You can use the seven modes in Lookout for different activities.

Switch between Lookout modes

  1. To change modes, at the top left, tap the Select mode button Menu.
  2. To switch the mode, tap the mode that you want to use.
    • If you use TalkBack, double-tap your screen.
  3. Choose a mode:
    • Text: Point your camera to any text to read it. If the text isn't read clearly:
      • Rotate your device between landscape and portrait.
      • Move the text closer or further away.
      • Lookout will alert you when no text is detected.
    • Explore (beta): Point your camera around you to hear what's in your environment, like objects and text.
      • Explore mode is still in beta and is less accurate than other modes.
    • Food labels: To scan barcodes or recognise the front of a food product, hold the product's label in front of your camera and slowly rotate it.
      • Food labels mode is only available in some countries. The first time that you select Food label mode, follow the prompt to download additional data. This download lets Food label mode recognise food labels, get results faster and work offline.
    • Documents: Read full pages of text.
      • Hold your device in portrait mode and move your device slowly.
      • To take a picture of the entire document, listen to Lookout's real-time guidance.
      • To read the text in view, you can use the 'Take snapshot' button. Lookout can sometimes read a snapshot better than a live camera view.
    • Currency: To read currency, point your camera at one banknote at a time.
      • This mode is only available for US dollars, euros or Indian rupees. It doesn't recognise coins.
    • Images: Capture, upload or share an image and get a description.
      • Lookout detects text and objects in the image.
      • To help Lookout identify the image, hold your device, move it slowly and listen to Lookout's real-time object identification.
      • To capture an image, tap Capture or Selfie. You can also upload or share an image to Lookout.
      • To download a captured image, on your screen, tap Download.
      • You can get detailed descriptions of your image in English.
      • If you use English in the US, UK or Canada, to ask follow-up questions and get AI-powered answers, you can use the keyboard or your voice. To share your satisfaction with the Q&A results, tap Thumbs up Thumbs up or Thumbs down Thumbs down.
      • Poor lighting, blur, low resolution and occlusion can affect the image capture and description results. The image contents and composition may also impact the results.
    • Find: Select an object to be found from a prefilled list of objects.
      • To choose an object, at the top right, tap Choose the item that you want to find.
        • The default setting is 'Seating and tables', the chair icon.
      • To help Lookout find the object, hold your device, move it slowly and listen to Lookout's real-time object identification.

Tips for using Lookout

Stop and start Lookout

To turn the camera on or off, tap Turn camera on or off .

  • If you use TalkBack, double-tap on your screen.

Tip: Your phone vibrates when you turn the camera on.

Read text with reading tools

Reading tools are available in:

  • Documents mode
  • Images mode
  • Recent

With these tools you can adjust the reading speed and display options, like:

  • Font choice
  • Text size and appearance
  • Background or text colour contrast
  • Letter spacing
  • Line height

To turn on reading tools in Documents mode, at the bottom right, tap Reading settings .

Alternative method to turn on reading tools in Documents mode:

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. To use these features, tap Reading tools settings.

Change language, currency and country

By default, Lookout uses the same settings as your Android device. You can change language for Text, Document and Explore modes, change currency for Currency mode and change country for Food labels mode. This lets you use Lookout in multilingual environments.

  1. Select the mode that you want to use.
  2. At the top, tap the language, currency or country button.
  3. Select the language, currency or country that you want to use.
  4. To return to the active mode, tap Back.

Tip: If you change your country for Food labels mode or your currency in Currency mode, you'll be prompted to download fresh data for that country.

Review or share recent results

On your Recents list, you can review the history of items that Lookout has detected and share a result with someone else.

  1. Tap Recents.
  2. Go through your results one at a time.
  3. To get details, select an item.
  4. To share an item, tap Share Share.
  5. Select the app where you want to share or store the result.

Tip: When you close Lookout, recent items are deleted automatically.

Change Lookout settings

  1. On your Android device, tap Lookout Lookout.
  2. Tap the account menu and then Settings.
  3. Review or change the following settings:
    • Automatic torch: Automatically use your torch to improve image recognition.
    • Document scan hints: Get document scan guidance.
    • Haptic feedback: Use vibrations to confirm actions.
    • Text-to-speech output settings: Choose text-to-speech settings just for Lookout. These settings are separate from your system text-to-speech settings. Adjust speech rate, pitch, play a sample or reset to the system defaults.

Help and feedback

To help improve Lookout, you'll occasionally receive requests to share feedback through short surveys. You can also send feedback whenever you want:

  1. On your Android device, tap Lookout Lookout.
  2. Tap the account menu and then Help and feedback.

For more help using Lookout, contact the Google Disability support team.

Delete your data

  1. On your Android device, tap Lookout Lookout.
  2. Tap the account menu and then Lookout settings and then Images mode settings.
  3. Turn off Images mode data collection.
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