(Update) Google Now on Tap update adds image search and text select

Original post: Google Now on Tap hasn’t exactly lived up to the hype of its introduction. Like many other Google products, it seems unfinished, a work on progress. The bright side is we can expect cool new features to drop at any time and that’s exactly what we’re getting today.

Several Reddit users are reporting seeing a new option in the Google Now on Tap bar. The new button lets you select specific words that you want to see search results on.

The ability to select specific search terms has been high on our wish list for Now on Tap. Up until now, Now on Tap would try to guess what search terms you were interested in. This worked great in many cases, but occasionally, it would miss exactly the terms you were actually interested in. When that happened, you had to manually select and copy the text, switch apps, and paste it in the Search box – that’s assuming the app even allowed you to select text in the first place.

Here’s the feature in action, courtesy of Reddit user YOUR_MORAL_BAROMETER:

It’s not clear if this is the beginning of full-scale rollout or an A/B test, the sort of which Google is known to engage in all the time.

Personally, I checked multiple devices running the latest version of Google app, without any luck. It’s likely that the new feature is activated server-side on a per-user basis.

To check if you have it, activate Google Now on Tap and look for the “finger” button in the bottom bar.

Here’s the old layout:

And here’s the modified layout including the new feature:

Have you got it? Let us know in the comments!