Microsoft's Bing lets you find that stranger's jeans with your phone camera

Don't know what something is called and your description isn't cutting it for a search engine? Besides Google Lens, now you can also search using pictures on Bing.

Microsoft on Thursday launched a new function on Bing that lets you search an image on the web using your camera, the company said in a blog post. This AI-powered feature is available in the US on the Bing app for iOS, Android and Microsoft Launcher. The company has also rolled out the feature for Microsoft Edge for Android, and will soon be added on iOS devices as well as Bing.com.

"While there have been strides for many years to get to this point," said Vince Leung, the product lead for Bing Images at Microsoft, in a blog post. "With the advent of cloud computing we're able to accelerate our ability to make sense out of pixels ."

Here's how it works. Let's say you see a stranger looking great in jeans, and you want to know the brand of the jeans.You can take a photo of it using the Bing app, and the search engine will identify the object and provide you more information via links. You can also use this feature for things like architecture, plants and more.

AI-powered visual search has become a hot topic for tech giants. Google last year launched Google Lens, which lets you search with your smartphone's camera and it also features augmented reality. 

"Microsoft's vision is that search is ubiquitous, going beyond the search box and adapting to changing information needs and technology habits," a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email statement. "We believe Visual Search is the future of search, and will continue to invest in new technologies and techniques to enable scenarios that help our search customers. We're excited about the capabilities in this space."

First published on June 22, 9:40 a.m. PT.

Updates, 12:03 a.m. PT: Adds Microsoft spokesperson statement.