Is your Phone Getting Circle to Search?

Early this week during Samsung’s unpacked event, a brand new Galaxy s24 Ultra was launched alongside new options from Google on how users can search on their smartphones. The “Circle to Search” is an innovative feature that allows Android users to perform searches using three unique gestures: circling, highlighting, and scribbling.

To utilize the Circle to Search feature, long-press your home button. Then, perform a contextual search on the content displayed on your phone screen by creating a circle around it. Alternatively, you can scribble over or highlight text or images. Following these actions, a Google Search will initiate, but the crucial point is that you won’t exit the specific app you are using. Simply swipe up to view the search results and swipe down to return to the app.

The functionality of Circle to Search is driven by Gemini Mobile, Google’s most recent multimodal language model tailored for mobile devices. Initially demonstrated on the Galaxy S24 in collaboration with Samsung, this AI model is anticipated to expand to Google’s upcoming Pixel smartphone iteration. The worldwide rollout of Circle to Search is scheduled for January 31 on specific high-end Android devices, beginning with the Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, and the latest Samsung Galaxy S24 series.