Google on Wednesday announced ‘Circle to Search’ feature in any app for premium Android smartphones starting with Pixel 8 and 8 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S24 series from January 31 in all languages and regions.
With ‘Circle to Search’, users can search video, photo or text (circling, highlighting, scribbling, or tapping) without the need of a screenshot. The video will pause as you circle the image or the text in the background and a gen-AI based data will appear for it. Once you finish interacting, the video will resume from there.
You have to long press the home button or navigation bar on your Android phone to activate ‘Circle to Search’. From there, you can select any item with your preferred gesture like circling to quickly find similar options. When you’re done, swipe away and you’re right back where you started.
Working as an extension of Google Lens but more precise and accurate, the new feature leverages Google’s Gemini and Bard and other large language models to give you a description. “The majority of computing happens natively (on-device),” informed Google during the press briefing.
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Google also announced AI-driven overviews for multisearch in Lens. When you point your camera at a photo or screenshot, it gets a quick insights powered by generative AI.
With multisearch, you can search with text and images at the same time. Circle and ask a question. “The multisearch gives you the ability to ask more complex questions,” said Google.
The multisearch is launching in the U.S. first. For outside the U.S. and into SGE, the preview is in the Google app. You’ll also be able to access AI-powered overviews on multisearch results within Circle to Search.
