Google Wants to Improve Its Circle to Search Feature by Eliminating Accidental Touches

Google is planning to improve Circle to Search by eliminating the accidental touch issue found with the feature. Circle to Search was launched in January this year with the Samsung Galaxy S24 series as a visual lookup feature where users can circle an image or block of text and the feature recognises what is being highlighted and shows Google Search results for it. However, reportedly, some users have complained that the feature activates even when not intended. The tech giant is now looking to fix this issue.

In the latest episode of Made by Google Podcast, which was released on Monday, Product Manager Erin Lynch and Director of Product Management Alistair Pott, who closely worked with the team that built Circle to Search, discussed the feature in detail. During the conversation, the duo also addressed the issue that several users have complained about the feature's activation being too sensitive to touch. The feature can be triggered by long-pressing the navigation bar or the Home button, and some users have reported that despite not trying to activate it, Circle to Search still turns on.

Admitting the existence of the issue, Lynch said, “We still have further to go, and we're working a lot on making sure it's triggered when you want. It's not triggered when you don't want.” But no timeline for the improvement was shared. However, this confirms that the team is indeed working on a fix.

Another interesting information shared in the podcast was that Circle to Search utilises the capabilities of Google Lens to perform visual lookup. While this was rumoured to be the case, this is the first time the company has officially confirmed it. This integration is also set to get better in the future. “We're bringing lens and search together more[..]I'm really excited about our actually merging of both the search result page with the lens result page. And that's going to be rolling out over many, many months.” This could unify the search view users see when they look something up using the feature.

Google's Circle to Search uses artificial intelligence (AI) to process the information displayed on the screen and then run it through Google Search to show results. It can be used to explain a particular word or phrase, find out the price of a dress, know more about a famous building, and more.