Nothing OS 3.0 Brings AI-Powered Circle to Search to Nothing Phone 2a Plus and Other Models

Nothing is rolling out the Circle to Search feature powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to its smartphones, the company announced via its community forum on Thursday. The feature, which has been developed by Google, will be available on the Nothing Phone 2a Plus, Nothing Phone 2a, and the Phone 2 as part of the Nothing OS 3.0 update. It brings Android 15 to Nothing smartphones although its public build is yet to be rolled out for some models in Nothing's lineup.

Circle to Search on Nothing Smartphones

In a community post, the company announced that its Android 15-based Nothing OS 3.0 update for the Nothing Phone 2a Plus, Nothing Phone 2a, and the Phone 2 brings support for Circle to Search — Google's AI-powered visual lookup tool. It has been rolled out after the aforementioned models passed “additional testing”, as per the company.

Circle to Search comes to Nothing phones
Photo Credit: Nothing

As per the British smartphone maker, Nothing OS 3.0 is available as a stable update on the Nothing Phone 2a and Phone 2. However, Nothing Phone 2a Plus users can only download the Nothing OS 3.0 Open Beta 1 as of now. It comes with the following build numbers:

1. Nothing Phone 2: Pong-V3.0-241207-0124
2. Phone 2a: Pacman-V3.0-241210-2057
3. Phone 2a Plus: PacmanPro-V3.0-241126-1448 (Beta build)

Circle to Search enables users to search for something on the web by highlighting it on the screen and enabling its visual lookup, leveraging AI. It supports actions such as scribbling, circling or drawing over an object and text on the screen. The feature can be used to translate or copy text as well. In general, Circle to Search is invoked by long-pressing on the home button or the navigation bar.

On Nothing smartphones, it supports multiple navigation modes. When using the three-button navigation, users can simply press the home button to bring up Circle to Search. On the other hand, long-pressing the navigation bar brings up the AI feature if the gesture navigation method is selected.