Google is bringing Circle to Search to Chrome and the Google app on iOS, but it isn’t calling it that for whatever reason. Instead, it’s “Search Screen with Google Lens”.
This will show up as an option in the three-dot menu in both Chrome for iOS and the Google app for iOS. Once you select it, you’ll be able to use “whatever gesture comes naturally”. Examples include “drawing, highlighting, or tapping”.
The main caveat here, and the main differentiator compared to Android’s Circle to Search, is that you’re limited to Chrome and the Google app. You can’t use this system-wide on iOS, of course, because Apple would never allow that.
So you can use this feature “to quickly perform a visual search while browsing”, as Google says, “without having to take a screenshot or open a new tab”. Hence, it’s most useful in Chrome, since the web is at your fingertips in the browser.
“In the coming months”, there will be a new Google Lens icon in the address bar in Chrome that will let you access the same feature even faster.
The update that enables Search Screen with Google Lens is rolling out this week and will be available globally in Chrome for iOS and the Google app for iOS.
Google is also announcing that Google Lens is getting AI Overviews like Google Search, for queries relating to identifying objects. The AI Overviews will “help you quickly make sense of what you’re looking at”, and will also give you links to “helpful resources on the web”.
