Google launches 'Circle to Search', a gesture-based android search

Google has revealed 'Circle to Search,' a new method for searching on Android phones, in conjunction with Samsung's launch event. With this functionality, users will be able to search on their phone from anywhere at any time by touching, scribbling, circling, or highlighting. 

The company says that the purpose of the feature is to make it easier for users to interact with Google Search whenever a question comes up, whether it be while watching a video, looking at a photo inside a social media app, or messaging a friend. 

The name 'Circle to Search' can be misleading for this fresh Android feature, as it involves more than just circling gestures. It's primarily about interacting with on-screen text or images to initiate a search, and circling is simply one of the available options. This proves useful, especially when trying to identify something in a video or photo. 

More motions can also be used to activate the feature. You can get more information about a restaurant by just tapping on its name while you and your friend are conversing about it on a messaging app. The business also says that you may swipe across a string of words to make it into a search. An example of this is the term 'thrift flip,' which shows up when you watch YouTube Shorts about thrifting. 

If you find something visually interesting on your screen, you have the option to circle or scribble around that item. For example, Google suggests circling the sunglasses a creator is wearing in a video or scribbling on their boots to search for related items on Google without switching between apps. The scribble gesture applies to both images and text, according to Google. 




The search results displayed will vary depending on the user's query and the Google Labs products they choose to use. Simple text searches may yield traditional results, while queries combining text and images, referred to as 'multisearch' by Google, would involve using generative AI. In case the user is partaking in Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) experiment available through Google Labs, they will receive AI-generated responses, similar to other queries under the SGE initiative.

The company thinks that having search accessible from any app will be significant since users won't need to interrupt their current task to initiate a search or snap a screenshot to remember to search for something later.