How can we detect or disable Google's new "Homework help" Chrome browser feature during Canvas quizzes?

[thompsli]

Google has rolled out a new "Homework Help" button in the URL bar of Chrome, and I just tested it out. During a Canvas quiz, if I click that button in the URL bar and select a quiz question in Canvas, it'll spit out the answer right in a sidebar without leaving the page.

Is there a way to detect this in the quiz logs or otherwise keep this feature from being used during quizzes in Canvas? 

Here's a video of it in action: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uT_IsBKYnMhQfiyWjHdpyuYbheoTxJbS/view?usp=sharing 

[Renee_Carney · Accepted solution]

@thompsli & Community! 

We really appreciate you raising this concern. Google’s new “Homework Help” feature is a recent change, and we recognize the impact it can have on assessments delivered in Canvas.

We’re actively engaging with our partners to support institutions navigating these changes:

• With proctoring partners: We’re sharing what we know and collaborating closely so they can adapt their solutions to continue meeting the needs of customers in this evolving landscape of AI and assessment.
• With Google: We’re reaching out to emphasize our shared commitment to academic integrity and excellence, and to explore options for reducing the risk of misuse in testing contexts.
• With the education community: We’re joining and helping lead conversations on doubling down on authentic assessment approaches - projects, portfolios, oral responses, and discussions - that AI tools like Homework Help cannot trivially solve.

As institutions consider how best to deliver high-stakes assessments, options such as lockdown browsers or integrated proctoring tools can help reduce the likelihood of students accessing outside tools and features during a quiz.

This is just the beginning of many conversations around AI and assessment, and we’ll continue to keep you posted as things progress.

[sage_freeman · Accepted solution]

Hi All,

You may have also noticed that the "Homework Help" button only displays when visiting sites like Canvas (very sneaky Google!). However, you can click into the URL address bar on any website for options to "Ask Google about this page" using Google Lens.

I did some research and discovered the following:

---

Chrome - Google Lens

• This new Google Lens feature was released in Chrome 140 (Tuesday, September 2, 2025).
  • See Chrome Enterprise and Education release notes > Contextual search suggestions in Chrome address bar.
• The Google Chrome Blog includes an article that describes this new feature: 5 Chrome features I use all the time as a college student.

---

Google Workspace

Google Workspace Admins who manage Chrome browser or ChromeOS devices for schools may be able to disable the Google Lens feature with the LensOverlaySettings policy. Otherwise, the GenAiDefaultSettings policy is used as the default. 

---

Use of Personal Google Accounts

Keep in mind, a Google Workspace Admin cannot manage Chrome browser settings for users on personal computers if they are not signed into a Chrome browser profile using their school managed account. Management is tied to the Chrome profile, not just the Google Workspace account itself.

I believe schools can enforce a policy that requires a separate, managed Chrome profile whenever a user signs into their managed Google Workspace account on an unmanaged (personal) device. This would ensure that school or work-related browsing data is kept separate and managed, protecting both personal data and the organization's data.

---

Google's Term's of Service for Chrome AI Features

Students signed into personal Google accounts are not managed by their school's organization and are subject to different terms of service. In other words, data is sent to Google and used to train their AI model. This includes any of the built-in AI features in Chrome such as Text capture or Help me write.

Use of Gen AI features in Chrome "are not covered by Chrome’s enterprise data guarantees for generative AI as they are subject to their own guarantees and/or terms of service." See the Generative AI features and policies help page for Chrome Enterprise and Education. This page includes a list of built-in and additional Google generative AI features available through Chrome (including a breakdown of which terms of service are subject for each feature).

---

How can school's respond?

If you are a school that uses Google Workspace, find out who manages your Google Workspace for Education account. Ask them to contact your Google Workspace for Edu account rep and let them know that capturing data from password protected sites like Canvas is unethical.

[Renee_Carney · Accepted solution]

Greetings all, in our conversations with Google they would like us to share that you can and should log your concerns at via Report an issue or send feedback on Chrome

The Google Lens product team has let us know that they are exploring updating the logic to better avoid triggering on sites related to quizzes, exams, etc. 

And from our proctoring partners: 

• Honorlock: Look for a release today, designed to address this new feature.
• Respondus: LockDown Browser embeds its own version of Chrome, preventing students from using the many AI extensions that are available.
• Proctorio: Google Lens, and therefore Homework Help, are both blocked in their solution.

[NoahBoswell]

Hi there @thompsli ,

While I am not aware of a way to prevent this from appearing while on Canvas, since it has to do with the search engine and not Canvas specifically, using this feature does appear in the quiz logs, I gave this a try earlier today with classic quizzes.

Hope that helps a bit!

[venitk]

@NoahBoswell what does it look like when it appears in the quiz logs? Meaning, what does the quiz log say?

[NoahBoswell]

Hi @venitk ,

It appears the same as any other time a student leaves the exam. Teachers do not have access to actually see where the students went outside of the quiz, but you're able to see how long they were out of the quiz for, and when / if they answered the question prior to or after opening a new page (stopped viewing the quiz).

[antoniette_aizo]

We have been told by Instructure to not use this as a way to see if students are cheating.

[Renee_Carney]

This is correct, @antoniette_aizo, we do advise that institutions not use the logs as proof of cheating, as even a notification coming in during the test can create a false-positive in the logs. 

[screviston]

This may be a bigger issue then you realize. I teach software development at a tech college. This week I found out about the new Homework helper tool while working in one of my database design courses. The homework helper tool was able to read the entire page, which included images and written text, determine the database structure, then provide nearly correct answers for many sql statements students were suppose to develop. Some cases providing the sql code solution, other cases providing a written step by step suggestion. Microsoft Copilot is becoming pretty smart as well, meaning students only need to learn how to write AI prompts to get full solutions to quizzes and labs.

[venitk]

FYI, Canvas, this does seem to be blockable--it's blocked in McGraw Hill Connect (but not Wiley Plus)

[Renee_Carney · Accepted solution]

@thompsli & Community! 

We really appreciate you raising this concern. Google’s new “Homework Help” feature is a recent change, and we recognize the impact it can have on assessments delivered in Canvas.

We’re actively engaging with our partners to support institutions navigating these changes:

• With proctoring partners: We’re sharing what we know and collaborating closely so they can adapt their solutions to continue meeting the needs of customers in this evolving landscape of AI and assessment.
• With Google: We’re reaching out to emphasize our shared commitment to academic integrity and excellence, and to explore options for reducing the risk of misuse in testing contexts.
• With the education community: We’re joining and helping lead conversations on doubling down on authentic assessment approaches - projects, portfolios, oral responses, and discussions - that AI tools like Homework Help cannot trivially solve.

As institutions consider how best to deliver high-stakes assessments, options such as lockdown browsers or integrated proctoring tools can help reduce the likelihood of students accessing outside tools and features during a quiz.

This is just the beginning of many conversations around AI and assessment, and we’ll continue to keep you posted as things progress.

[screviston]

Don't forget other tools that have released recently, https://answersai.com/ is an app that you use during a quiz so it can provide the answers. There are 3-4 apps out there that I found quite easily, and directly stating that you can take a screen shot of your quiz / exam and get the answer. Not even trying to hide the fact that its cheating, they promote it stating the app can improve your grades. Homework Help feature in Chrome just makes it much easier for students to use.

[sdimitri]

You literally chatboxed an answer to a question raising concerns about allowing chatboxes to directly access our learning environment.

[antoniette_aizo]

Lockdown browsers have a whole host of issues in itself including it being inequitable. Not to mention it is costly. 

[KristelKoukoua]

Plus, they only help for Quizzes, not the regular classwork/homework assignments!

[KristinPaterson]

This is an unacceptable response! Instructure needs to do better!

[TerriGustafson]

This isn't just a Canvas thing. It affects all LMSs. 

It will take messages from D2L, Instructure, Blackboard and other instructional technology systems to get Google to fix this. 

[KristelKoukoua]

I tried in my Google Classroom, and it didn't show up....

[freedom_baird]

When a user in a Canvas course clicks the "Homework help" button in the URL field of the page they're on, this message pops up:
The message is letting the user know that if they use the "Homework help" feature, any content on that page will be sent to Google.  This will, of course, lead to copyright infringement, and is also a FERPA violation when the content is student-generated.

Instructure and Google please sort this out and allow schools to de-activate this feature. It's a legal issue.

Freedom Baird
Educational Technology Services
Tufts University

[antoniette_aizo]

This notification only shows up once. Once a person clicks okay, this reminder never shows up again.

[Renee_Carney]

Greetings all, in our conversations with Google they would like us to share that you can and should log your concerns at via Report an issue or send feedback on Chrome

That being said, they are taking action - the Google Lens product team is exploring updating the logic to better avoid triggering on sites related to quizzes, exams, etc. 

And from our proctoring partners: 

• Honorlock: Check for a release today, designed to address this new feature. 
• Respondus: LockDown Browser embeds its own version of Chrome, preventing students from using the many AI extensions that are available during a Canvas exam.
• Proctorio: Still in conversations. 

[drjutk]

Thanks for this! Very helpful to hear how you are responding to this issue.

I'm searching but can't find any official Canvas responses to the new Agentic AI browsers (like OpenAI's Atlas or Perplexity's Comet). There have been a couple of posts on this here: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Ideas/Block-AI-Agents-from-Logging-in-on-Behalf-of-Student... and here https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Ideas/Block-AI-Agents-from-Logging-in-to-Canvas/idi-p/6610... - the first one was tagged "Will not consider." 

The response above regarding the homework help seems much more helpful and confidence-boosting for those out here trying to do the work! Can you direct me to any official statements or your thoughts here?

Thanks!

Jason

[screviston]

@Renee_Carney  Related to your "We’re joining and helping lead conversations on doubling down on authentic assessment approaches" item. Are there any resource links or ways that I can join or participate in these groups?

---

[thompsli]

My biggest concern is that students may not even understand that clicking a button that says "help" and is literally on the same screen as their quiz could possibly be cheating. Some students set out to cheat, and ideally I'd like to detect that as well, but other students are going to assume that help button is an intentional support added to their quiz and part of how they're "supposed to " be doing things. 

[asaylor]

This is my concern and a conversation I just had today. I have a college student myself, and I can see her not realizing it was cheating. To her way of thinking - 'Help' is there to help me. I plan to send her this info as her school is also using Canvas.

[antoniette_aizo]

I saw the "Homework Help" in Chrome while grading statistics homework. What I found was in some cases, it was giving students the wrong answer, but more often than not, it was giving students the right answer. So I tested it using a picture with the question, it was able to read the question with and without alt text image. I inserted a word doc and a pdf file with the information not showing directly on the screen, it was able to read the documents. The only way I was able to confuse the "tool" was to have a word document with the questions on the directions page then have the answers in Canvas. Since it cannot read anything on the previous page, it couldn't help solve the problem - this is for the multiple choice ones. 

[asaylor]

Unfortunately, this situation results in a considerable amount of extra work and increases the risk of creating accessibility issues. Canvas needs to improve this so that faculty members aren’t burdened with additional challenges while striving to meet WCAG 2.1 compliance.

[sage_freeman · Accepted solution]

Hi All,

You may have also noticed that the "Homework Help" button only displays when visiting sites like Canvas (very sneaky Google!). However, you can click into the URL address bar on any website for options to "Ask Google about this page" using Google Lens.

I did some research and discovered the following:

---

Chrome - Google Lens

• This new Google Lens feature was released in Chrome 140 (Tuesday, September 2, 2025).
  • See Chrome Enterprise and Education release notes > Contextual search suggestions in Chrome address bar.
• The Google Chrome Blog includes an article that describes this new feature: 5 Chrome features I use all the time as a college student.

---

Google Workspace

Google Workspace Admins who manage Chrome browser or ChromeOS devices for schools may be able to disable the Google Lens feature with the LensOverlaySettings policy. Otherwise, the GenAiDefaultSettings policy is used as the default. 

---

Use of Personal Google Accounts

Keep in mind, a Google Workspace Admin cannot manage Chrome browser settings for users on personal computers if they are not signed into a Chrome browser profile using their school managed account. Management is tied to the Chrome profile, not just the Google Workspace account itself.

I believe schools can enforce a policy that requires a separate, managed Chrome profile whenever a user signs into their managed Google Workspace account on an unmanaged (personal) device. This would ensure that school or work-related browsing data is kept separate and managed, protecting both personal data and the organization's data.

---

Google's Term's of Service for Chrome AI Features

Students signed into personal Google accounts are not managed by their school's organization and are subject to different terms of service. In other words, data is sent to Google and used to train their AI model. This includes any of the built-in AI features in Chrome such as Text capture or Help me write.

Use of Gen AI features in Chrome "are not covered by Chrome’s enterprise data guarantees for generative AI as they are subject to their own guarantees and/or terms of service." See the Generative AI features and policies help page for Chrome Enterprise and Education. This page includes a list of built-in and additional Google generative AI features available through Chrome (including a breakdown of which terms of service are subject for each feature).

---

How can school's respond?

If you are a school that uses Google Workspace, find out who manages your Google Workspace for Education account. Ask them to contact your Google Workspace for Edu account rep and let them know that capturing data from password protected sites like Canvas is unethical.

[sage_freeman]

Sorry for the multiple posts everyone! There was a problem with replies not getting posted so I ended up with multiple posts to this thread (which I have deleted).

[thompsli]

I just wanted to thank you for writing all of this up! My district IT folks found it very helpful.

[Renee_Carney · Accepted solution]

Greetings all, in our conversations with Google they would like us to share that you can and should log your concerns at via Report an issue or send feedback on Chrome

The Google Lens product team has let us know that they are exploring updating the logic to better avoid triggering on sites related to quizzes, exams, etc. 

And from our proctoring partners: 

• Honorlock: Look for a release today, designed to address this new feature.
• Respondus: LockDown Browser embeds its own version of Chrome, preventing students from using the many AI extensions that are available.
• Proctorio: Google Lens, and therefore Homework Help, are both blocked in their solution.

[JatinBhavsar]

Greetings everyone,

Honorlock is blocking all chrome extensions when the lock-down browser feature is enabled for exams/quizzes in Canvas.

[dbrace]

@JatinBhavsar, yes, that is one of the features that Honorlock offers. Do you know how Honorlock handles this type of situation where the functionality that we are trying to prevent is natively available in the web browser and not as an extension?

-Doug

[KristelKoukoua]

As far as I'm aware, it also blocks overlays like Google Lense and Homework Help.  However, it only does so for Quizzes, not general classwork/assignments.

[dbrace]

Thank you, @Renee_Carney, for keeping the Community updated.

Thank you, @sage_freeman, for your in-depth response.

Along the lines of what @sage_freeman said, when not signed into a managed Chromebook or Google account in Google Chrome, all a "web surfer" (not exclusive to students or anyone in an academic setting) needs to do is right/secondary click on the webpage and one of the options is "Search with Google Lens".

While this is something that needs to be addressed in the context of education and an LMS, this means that with relative ease a "web surfer" accessing any webpage with Google Chrome can use this functionality if the webpage allows right-clicking (it is possible to disable right-clicking using code but that can also be circumvented, some photography platforms do this to protect copyright).

I hope that Google makes it possible for a web developer to remove the option as a whole when a "web surfer" right-clicks on their wepage.

-Doug

[Gracenbrock]

Has anyone tried this route to disable it?
https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/#LensOverlaySettings 

[dbrace]

Hi @Gracenbrock,

While that is an option, it would only work if the Chrome install or Chrome profile or Chromebook are being managed.

-Doug

[KristelKoukoua]

Exactly!  Our campus uses Microsoft 365 everything, not officially Google Workspace, so any instances of students using Chrome will be independent use.  The IT department can limit the use of this overlay for devices on campus in labs, but not on personal devices or online course users.  Also, while proctoring tools are helpful for Quizzes, I was able to use the Homework Help to complete entire regular assignments in several course modules, from Physics to Nursing.  It was even easier to get the entire assignment completed than the same in Google Search or ChatGPT.  I did not need to know accurate prompts at all in this case.  I just said, "Complete this assignment for me and show the steps."  I didn't even tell it what kind of assignment it was.  I also do not love that it only shows inside Canvas courses.  I tried in other LMS, and I didn't see it show up.  I realize students who choose less than ethical means to complete their work will probably do so anyway.  I do not believe, however, that students should have a tool specifically showing for them inside their assignments and labeling it as "Homework Help" makes it seem as though it is sanctioned because its inside the course and readily available.

[DirkKoppers]

Here is a proof of concept that uses JS detection to hide a Canvas quiz when a user tries to use Chrome's "Homework help."  As explained in the description, it has some caveats. We are not currently using it; it needs more testing (and discussing), but maybe it's an idea for others? View it in action here: https://zoom.us/clips/share/LwWxiboRSNu7OiWmB_BncA

========================

Dirk Koppers

Dartmouth College

[dbrace]

Interesting concept, @DirkKoppers.

Does it work for New Quizzes or only Classic Quizzes?

Would it be possible to adjust it for other content that is displayed in Canvas?

-Doug

[DirkKoppers]

Only tested for Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes so far. In theory, yes, it could be applied to anything.

[DirkKoppers]

Google has since removed the "Homework help" button from Canvas page with their latest Chrome update. However, it can be enabled easily by setting the Chrome flag "Lens Overlay EDU action chip" to "Enabled for trigger on all pages". Also, "Ask Google about this page" works like "Homework help" and is enabled by default.

One way of stopping this is through the previous "Proof of Concept" post I made. This method limits valid tools like screen-readers. A better idea could be to only show the warning once per quiz session. This provides a reminder and at the same time does not block any valid tools a user might need to complete a quiz.

You can see this in action here: https://zoom.us/clips/share/oAiz2ln8SyKPpMQ-MhMnTw

A link to the GitHub repository is included at the end of the video if you wanted to try this out.

Note that we are not using this idea ourselves at the moment, it remains a proof of concept.