Circle to Search (Google's new visual search feature introduced on the Samsung Galaxy S24 series and Pixel 8 series earlier this year) has made its way to many other smartphones over the past couple of months. Now iPhone owners can also use a form of the Circle feature to search using the Google iOS app and an Apple Shortcut. Unlike the Android version of Circle to Search, the iOS shortcut has some limitations and relies on Google Lens.
Google Lens design director Minsang Choi announced the arrival of a new shortcut in the Google app for iOS via a post on X (formerly Twitter). Called “Find Your Screenshot”, it will allow you to perform a custom action called “Find Image with Lens” using the Shortcuts app. When enabled, the shortcut takes a screenshot and uses Google Lens to search for image content.
The Google App iOS team just released a cool shortcut that lets you visually search with lenses using the action button on the iPhone 15 Pro series. It's basically a circle to search, but faster! Please download the Google app and give it a try! : https://t.co/T0GR141Pim pic.twitter.com/AN2C9bEsA9
— Minsang Choi (@radiofun8) May 8, 2024
To use the shortcut on an iPhone, you'll need to make sure your phone has iOS 13 or later and download the latest version of the Google app for iOS. The shortcut can be accessed directly by tapping the link shared by Choi on an iPhone. Alternatively, you can choose to set the shortcut manually by selecting Take a screenshot and followed by Search image with lens.
While Android users can just hold down the navigation bar to use the Circle to Search feature, iPhone owners can speed up the shortcut launch process by assigning the iPhone 15's action button Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Meanwhile, sailing to accessibility > Touch > tap back in the Settings app will let you launch the shortcut with a double-tap or a three-tap gesture on most modern iPhone models.
While launching Google's new shortcut is pretty straightforward once it's set up, it's limited in terms of functionality compared to the Circle to Search feature on Android smartphones. While the shortcut will pass your screenshot to Google Lens for visual search, you can't draw a circle or highlight a part of the screen to search. However, it's a convenient way to quickly look up something on your iPhone with a couple of taps.
