Most people access Google’s search and AI products through a browser, but you’ve got some new options today. Google has been testing a Windows search app for some months, and it's now officially available.

Over on the Apple side of the fence, Google has focused its efforts on designing a native Gemini app. That one is also available widely today with the same features you get in the Gemini web interface.

The 'Google app for desktop' first arrived on Windows in a beta form last September. It was pretty rough at first, and Google couldn’t even update the app’s early versions, forcing users to uninstall and reinstall new builds. That won't be a concern with the official release, which brings assorted search capabilities to your Windows PC.

You can open the Google app by pressing Alt + Space at any time. The compact search UI floats on top of whatever you're doing, allowing you to instantly search the web and (with authorization) your local files and apps. Web results look like what you'd get in a browser, right down to the inclusion of AI Overviews and AI Mode.

The Google Windows app can also pull the context from your screen for searches. There's a Lens button, allowing you to highlight any part of the screen to instantly run a web search. You can also share your screen—either a single window or the entire screen—as context for your searches.