Google has announced that Lens users on iOS can now use gestures to complete image searches.
Available to English-language users in countries where AI Overviews are supported, Lens users can now launch the Chrome app, tap the three dot menu and select ‘Search Screen with Google Lens’.
Here, users can draw a circle around, or tap, the image to start a search. Google then matches the picture against a database of images indexed from the web with the help of AI. Previously, iPhone and iPad users had to take a screenshot and ask Lens to analyse it. This update allows direct image analysis, no screen capture required.
Sound familiar? This is essentially the Circle to Search AI feature that has been heavily advertised as a major AI tool on both Samsung and Pixel devices. It appears to operate in a similar way on iOS, but the difference is accessing the tool is more cumbersome for iPhone owners.
Android users can long-press the bottom of their display to activate the feature, which can then conduct an image search for whatever is on screen. iOS users can only do this when using the Chrome browser, Google app and apps that support the feature.
Circle to Search is deeply integrated into Android, and Google obviously doesn’t have that level of access and control over iOS. So the feature was always going to be available in a convoluted and limited way. Making the feature available does, however, give iPhone owners a flavor of Google AI. Circle to Search has been the vehicle for spreading AI to as many phones as possible without major OS updates, or the requirement of new hardware.
In the last year, Google has added full-page text translations, QR code scanning, song identification, text translation, maths problem solving and more to Circle to Search. It’s not clear if iOS users will have access to the full suite of Circle to Search features now or in the future. Perhaps Apple has its own plans via Apple Intelligence.
It is clear, though, that the company sees its supremacy in Search as a way to introduce AI to as many phones as possible, including budget devices and entirely separate operating systems such as iOS.
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