Use Lookout to explore your surroundings

As an Android app for people who are blind or have low vision, Lookout helps provide info about your surroundings. It uses your device's camera and sensors to recognise objects and text but also describes what it finds in the viewfinder.

What you need

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

Supported languages:

  • Arabic
  • 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 on Lookout

  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:
  5. Tap Next and then I agree.
  6. Allow Lookout to take pictures and record video either While using the app or Only this time.
  7. Select an account.
  8. Tap OK.

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 Select mode 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.
      • If you set language to 'Detect language', Lookout automatically identifies and reads text in any supported language.
    • 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.
      • You can receive direction and distance guidance to the object being looked for in most phones.
      • The list of objects that can be found includes:
        • Seating and tables
        • Doors and windows
        • Cups
        • Bottles and cans
        • Utensils and tableware
        • Vehicles
        • Bathroom

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, whether audible or highlighted, 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 is set to the 'Detect language' option.

  • You can change language for these modes:
    • Text
    • Document
    • Explore
  • Change currency for Currency mode
  • Change country for Food labels

This lets you use Lookout in surroundings with multiple languages.

To change the default language, currency or country:

  1. On your Android device, open Lookout Lookout.
  2. At the top left, tap Menu Menu.
  3. From the menu, tap what you want to change:
    • To change the language:
      1. Tap Text, Documents, Explore (beta) or Images (beta).
      2. At the top, tap Language .
      3. From the drop-down menu, select the language that you want.
      4. Place the camera at the text that you want to read.
    • To change currency:
      1. Tap Currency.
      2. At the top, tap Currency .
      3. From the drop-down menu, select the currency that you want.
      4. Tap Save and then Download.
      5. Place the camera at the currency that you want to read.
    • To change the country:
      1. Tap Food labels.
      2. At the top, tap Country .
      3. From the drop-down menu, select the country that you want.
      4. Tap Save and then Download.
      5. Place the camera at the food label that you want to read.

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.
    • If available, you can share text, image or both.
  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 Lookout 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.
    • Natural sounding voices: In the reading tools settings, select from a list of natural sounding voices.

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 with 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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