Most of the time, if you want to find a video on YouTube, you either go to the app or website and use the built-in search bar or try to search via Google.

Google Lens and YouTube's new endeavor offers some Android users a unique way to search; as discovered by Android Police, this new feature allows users to point the camera at something, which is a great way to find videos that are not available on the Android platform.

It is unclear how many people will have access to this new feature. I tried it on several Android phones I had at home and none of them could access it.

If accessible, a Google Lens button will appear in the search bar of the YouTube app. Tapping the button opens the phone's camera, allowing you to point the camera at the subject and search. Results are displayed as a YouTube search. According to Google, clicking on "Google Search" will show more standard Google search results.

It will be interesting to see how this translates to actual searches. How accurate are the searches? And in the meantime, how long will it take YouTube to recommend cryptoTube and Tim Pool?

Again, Google has stated in their blog post that this feature will only be available to a "small percentage" of users. If you were part of the experiment, let me know.

Recently, Google has also experimented with AI on YouTube. For the most part, these additions seem to be geared more toward YouTube creators than viewers; AI elements include AI-generated effects that can be used in YouTube Shorts videos, AI-summarized comments, and AI-generated green screen images for backgrounds. Again, most of these features are creator-oriented and specifically targeted at YouTube's TikTok/Reels-knockoff Shorts.

Not all of YouTube's recent experiments have been successful. The recently announced Playables just added a bunch of mobile ad games to the service that seemingly serve no purpose.

That said, anything that makes it easier to search for and find interesting videos and make them available in a variety of media sounds interesting, and it would be cool to scan an object with your phone to find the answer to a question and get information about it in a YouTube video.