Bring back Google Now on Tap-like functionality on any Android device

We may earn a commission for purchases made using our links.

Now on Tap was first released in 2015 and it was touted as the future of Google’s virtual assistant platform. But it was replaced with Google Assistant. Google Now on Tap offered features to help you understand the context of what’s on screen and get answers to any questions while multitasking. Some people really loved it, and still wish that it were here. While we don’t have a way to fully bring back the feature, you can get similar functionality using a couple of apps.

This is yet another tutorial in which we’ll use Tasker. If you haven’t heard about Tasker, it’s the most popular automation application on Android. In this guide, we’ll also use Google Lens and the AutoShare plugin for Tasker. The project works like this: You set up Tasker to add a custom shortcut in quick settings which, when tapped, takes a screenshot and sends it to Google Lens for analysis. It’s basically a quick shortcut to have Google Lens analyze whatever is on your screen. Here is a video of the project in action.

And here’s how to actually set it up:

First, you have to download the 3 applications mentioned below: Tasker, Google Lens, and AutoShare; Open AutoShare and allow access to your internal storage for sharing the screenshot to Google Lens; Open this link on your Android device with Tasker installed; Tap on “Import.” Run the task one so that it adds the custom shortcut; That’s it!

We’ll try to offer as many Tasker tutorials as we can. The fact that the latest version of Tasker makes importing the projects so much easier is very fortunate for users. Previously, they had to go through a painful process of importing the project from the application or set up the task manually. The download links for the applications required for this tutorial are below.