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Google patents visual search that suggests apps based on what you see

This patent describes a system where a user can point at content on their screen to trigger a visual search. The device analyzes the image locally, sends it to a server for more details, and then suggests a specific app, like a messaging tool, to handle the result.

Why it mattersIt could make finding information and acting on it faster by automatically connecting what you see on screen to the right tool.

In the filing’s own words

Visual search in an operating system of a computing device can process and provide additional information on the content being provided for display. The computing device can include an operating system that includes a visual search interface that obtains and processes display data associated with content currently being provided for display. The visual search interface can generate display data based on the current content provided for display, process the display data with one or more on-device machine-learned models, and provide additional information to the user. The visual search interface may transmit data associated with the display data to perform additional data processing tasks. Application suggestions may be determined and provided based on the visual search data.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A computer-implemented method, the computer-implemented method comprising: obtaining, by a computing system comprising one or more processors, a user input on a user computing device; obtaining, with an overlay application invoked based on the user input, display data descriptive of content currently presented for display on the user computing device within a first application; obtaining, by the computing system and with the overlay application, a gesture input from the user computing device; determining, by the computing system and with the overlay application, a region-of-interest within the display data based on the gesture input and image features of the content currently presented for display; processing, by the computing system and with the overlay application, the display data with an on-device segmentation model to generate a segmentation mask based on a detected object within the region-of-interest within the display data and to segment a portion of the display data based on the segmentation mask; transmitting, by the computing system, the portion of the display data to a server computing system and in response to transmitting the portion of the display data to the server computing system, obtaining, from the server computing system, visual search data comprising one or more visual search results determined based on detected features within the portion of the display data; determining, by the computing system and with a machine-learned suggestion model and based on the visual search data, a suggested action comprising a create-a-text suggestion and determining, with the machine-learned suggestion model, a second application is associated with the suggested action; providing, by the computing system and based on the visual search data and within a suggestion panel, an application suggestion comprising an indication of the second application, wherein the second application comprises a messaging application; in response to receiving a selection of the application suggestion, processing, by the computing system, the visual search data with a generative model to generate a model-generated output; and transmitting, by the computing system and via the overlay application, the model-generated output to the messaging application.

Facts

Company
Google (Google LLC)
Official title
Application Prediction Based on a Visual Search Determination
Publication number
US20260259890A1
Application number
19652604
Filed
Apr 20, 2026
Published
Sep 3, 2026
Inventors
9
Claims
20

Classified under

G06F 16/248 Physics & computingG06F 9/451 Physics & computing

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.