We’re impressed with the Circle to Search feature available on the Samsung Galaxy S24 series and the Google Pixel 8 phones, but if you don’t own either of these handsets it looks like you’ll have to wait a while wait to get it.
According to a press release (via SamMobile), released by Samsung in the Netherlands in celebration of record pre-orders in the country, the Circle to Search feature “could become available on third-party Android devices starting October 5.”
So then you only have to wait eight months, if you don’t have a Pixel 8 or Galaxy S24. It sounds like Samsung has made some sort of exclusivity deal with Google, so companies like OnePlus and Motorola can’t benefit from it for a certain period of time.
Early October is of course around the time we get new versions of Android – Android 14 was released on October 4 – so it’s possible that Circle to Search will become more widely available as part of the Android 15 update.
When September ends
The reference to October 5th now appears to have disappeared from the press release – so it’s apparently information that Samsung and Google didn’t want in the public domain, and may have been wrongly included.
That said, it still says that Circle to Search will be exclusive to Samsung and Google phones until September – so older Pixels and Galaxy handsets could get the functionality before that October 5 date.
If you have no idea what we’re talking about, Circle to Search lets you circle, scribble, or tap something on the screen to perform a Google search on it. It’s like Google Lens, but easier to access from whatever app you’re using.
For those of you with phones that don’t have Circle to Search yet, you might get it from Microsoft before you get it from Google: It looks like a similar feature will soon be introduced to Microsoft Edge on mobile.