The Circle to Search feature, which allows you to start a search by image if you circle an area of the screen, appeared in beta versions of Google ChromeOS 127 and Chrome 128 for Windows and macOS.
Image source: Rubaitul Azad / unsplash.com
The feature initially debuted on the Samsung Galaxy S24 and Google Pixel 8 smartphones, but quickly spread to other devices. Circle to Search allows you to search based on visual content, and is now available on PCs running Google ChromeOS 127, as well as desktop versions of the Chrome 128 browser – currently only in beta versions.
In ChromeOS, to launch it, you will need to select the “Google Lens” icon in the address bar, and in Chrome for Windows and macOS you will need to select “Search with Google Lens” in the browser menu – for ease of further use, the corresponding button can be moved to the Chrome toolbar.
Searching for content that is included in the circled fragment of the page begins immediately, and its results are displayed in the sidebar – you can stay on the open page and immediately get acquainted with the search results.
«Google Lens in Chrome makes it easy to search for anything on the screen: a running video, a frame of a live broadcast, or an image from the current page – the answers you need are shown in the same tab. The presence of the new feature in the official beta versions of the ChromeOS platform and the Chrome browser indicates that it will soon become generally available – this is expected to happen on August 14th.