The just-arrived Galaxy S24’s Circle to Search feature will make it to the Pixel 8: How and why to use

Circle to Search is one of the many islands in Samsung’s Galaxy AI archipelago that was discovered and claimed by the Galaxy S24 trio.

Soon, that island will be cohabited.

The Google Pixel 8 and the Pixel 8 Pro – and possibly many more after that – will allegedly also get the Circle to Share feature (via 9to5Google).

The Circle to Search feature was presented in the middle of the Galaxy S24’s official presentation and it’ll prove to be very useful. Let’s see how to use it, and why.

If you can’t find the (search) words, you can now find “the thing” instead

Both native and non-native English speakers can (and should) confess that they’ve been in this extremely frustrating situation: you see something and you want to search for it in Google, but you don’t know what it is. As you blush, you type more and more gibberish adjectives and “descriptions” in an attempt to crack the mystery.

One solution is to use Google Lens and to image-search for whatever you search, be it a photo that you’ve taken with your phone, or an image from the web.

Yes, but that takes time. And effort. It’s 2024, so we’ll have none of that.

That’s where Circle to Search comes into play – this AI feature allows Galaxy S24 users (and Pixel 8, potentially) to search fast and seamlessly without leaving the app you’re in and disrupting whatever you’re doing.

How to invoke it?

Let’s say you’re scrolling through Instagram, and you come across a photo. On it, there’s something that you want to know more about – perhaps a hat of a person in the photo, or a plant in the background.

To enable Circle to Search, one needs to long-press the home button (the navigation middle button at the bottom of the screen). A pill-shaped Google Assistant bubble pops up, and then, you just have to draw a circle around what you’re after. The pill-shaped bubble expands into a search results preview with information about whatever you’ve circled.

There’s a video by Samsung. Here it is:


Also, you could highlight text. For example, if you get a message that you’re invited over for dinner at the X restaurant, but you have no idea where that is, you can now just open the message, again invoke the Circle to Search feature, and then just drag through the restaurant’s name. It should present you with Google’s search results and additional information.

Apart from the circle and highlight gestures, users can similarly scribble on, or tap on Galaxy S24’s screen to get instant search results for all that’s of interest.

Don’t forget that results may vary – after all, they depend on visual matches and since this is a brand new feature, don’t expect 100% accuracy 100% of the time. Of course, Circle to Search requires an internet connection as well as the latest Android version. “Some functions may not be compatible with certain apps”, says Samsung, so we’ll see how it goes.