Google Spotted Testing Circle to Search Music Identification Feature With Ability to Recognise Songs and Artists

Circle to Search, the artificial intelligence (AI) visual lookup feature developed by Google, might be getting a new music search capability. According to a new leak, a new icon for music search was spotted in testing on a Samsung Galaxy S23 series handset. The feature is said to be able to detect a song playing on the screen and run a Google Search for it. However, it is unclear whether the feature is currently available to beta testers or whether it is being rolled out widely.

Circle to Search Might Be Getting a Music Search Function

A Reddit post by user u/SamsungAmateur sheds light on a new feature was spotted on Circle to Search, that lets users look up a song playing on the screen. While the user found it in the Galaxy S23 series smartphone, it is unclear if other devices and Samsung's other smartphone series will also be getting it.

Circle-to-Search music search feature
Photo Credit: Reddit/SamsungAmateur

Thanks to multiple screenshots of the feature shared by the user, we have a clear picture of how it works. A new icon is shown next to the Google Search floating action button. It features a music note in purple, and the icon is placed next to the translation icon.

In another screenshot, it appears that the user tapped the button, and the text appears “Play, sing, or hum a song…” on the screen. In the example, a music video on YouTube was being played. In a subsequent screenshot, it appears the feature correctly identified the artist and the song name and ran a Google Search for it. Gadgets 360 was not able to confirm the existence of the feature on the latest version of the Google app on a device with the Circle to Search feature enabled.

The feature prompts the user to play, sing, or hum the song, according to one of the screenshots. As Circle to Search is a visual lookup feature, the addition of singing or humming to identify a song would mean the addition of new functionality. This raises some suspicion regarding whether the singing or humming detection functionality is genuine. Notably, in the Reddit post, other users claimed that they have not seen the feature on devices like the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

As a result, it's worth taking the leaked details about this feature with a healthy dose of scepticism. Google has yet to make an official announcement regarding the feature, which — if genuine — could eventually be rolled out to users.