Perhaps the most dynamic feature from Google this year has been Circle to Search or CtS. Starting to roll out in January to the Pixel 8 series, it continued to gain major features like instant translation and split-screen functionality up through April. Google continued to enhance CtS with things like barcode scanning and music identification this year.
Meanwhile, Circle to Search also graduated onto Chrome under the Google Lens branding. Available via the Chrome address bar, it allows users to begin reverse image searches either by dragging their mouse or selecting images or text on their screens. Its early days gave more general search results but included an “add to your search” box for a more narrowed-up search.
Updates as of late seem to iron out the UI for a more CtS-like experience. For instance, the new UI includes a hazy, multicolored full-screen overlay to give it that CtS look. This advancement cleans up the UI and suggests that Google is getting ready to roll out some new features for Lens on Chrome.
Being able to save circled search queries as images would have, though, been a feature expected. Currently, for Android users, it’s possible to circle the elements, share them, or save them as images. Chrome Lens extracts or translates the text of the selected area alone.
According to Chrome researcher @Leopeva64 on X, similar functionality is coming to Lens on Chrome as well. The Chrome changelog does mention that it should soon support saving and copying of selected regions as images, too, though the UI implementation hasn’t gone live yet.
