How to access Google's Circle to Search smartness on any Android phone today

Whoa. Is it just me, or is there a serious scent of déjà vu in the air right now?

Google, if you haven't yet heard, is gearin' up to launch an ambitious new universal search system for Android devices. It's called Circle to Search, and it actually sounds pretty useful:

Circle to Search [is] a new way to search anything on your Android phone screen without switching apps. With a simple gesture, you can select images, text, or videos in whatever way comes naturally to you — like circling, highlighting, scribbling or tapping — and find the information you need right where you are.

So in a nutshell, you press and hold your finger to the bottom-center area of your screen, which activates the new visual search system and lets you pinpoint — by circling — what exact part of the screen you want to learn more about. It could be part of an image or an excerpt of text. Whatever it is, Google's virtual genie will jump right on it and show you related information.

It's an interesting new way to bring the typically buried brilliance of Google Lens on Android into the forefront and make it a more prominent, native-feeling, and easily accessible part of the Android experience. It's also exactly like a feature Google launched as a marquee element of Android 6.0 nearly a decade ago — something called Google Now on Tap that worked in an almost identical way, with on-demand screen searching kicked off by a finger press in that very same area and then the ability to pinpoint what precise part of the screen you wanted your search to revolve around.

It was a brilliant move for Android and a significant leap forward for the platform, as I waxed on endlessly about at the time. But then — well, y'know: Google...Googled. The company shifted its focus, lost interest in Now on Tap, and eventually killed it off with little to no fanfare.

Sure enough, as certain tech prophets predicted, we've now come full circle — and the Now on Tap philosophy is back almost uncannily with Circle to Search and with even more powerful current-day AI technology beneath it. Hey, it's all good. That flavor of déjà vu is considered a delicacy here in the land o' Googley matters.

The only problem is that Circle to Search is gonna be very limited in its availability for the foreseeable future, with the feature launching only on the Pixel 8 and Galaxy S24 phones and not even showing up there until sometime later this month.

Here's a little secret, though: You don't need those devices to use this very same on-demand visual search setup this second. In fact, you can accomplish the same exact thing Circle to Search promises on virtually any Android phone — no matter how old it is or who made it.

Let me show you how.

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Your Android Circle to Search emulator

Here's a pinch o' nice news to get things going: You've actually got a couple equally effective options to emulate the Google Circle to Search system on any Android phone, and neither of 'em requires any real setup or effort to activate.

We'll start with the simplest path: On any reasonably recent Android device — so long as it's running 2019's Android 10 software or higher — you can simply summon Google Assistant and then ask it to start a screen search for you.

By all counts, the resulting action is exactly the same as what the newer Circle to Search system would give you. It just involves a slightly different but no less difficult way to get there.

So try this:

• Pull up something you want to search around on your phone — a website with an image of a particular product, for instance, a text message with the name of a specific business, or even a still from a video.
• Call up Google Assistant — by saying "Hey Google," by pressing and holding your phone's power button, or by using any other available Assistant-opening action on your device.
• Look for the "Search screen" button at the bottom of the Assistant overlay.

JR

Now, just tap that button, and bam: Whatever you were seeing on your screen will be beamed right over into Google Lens, where you can analyze it and start a search for any specific area. All you've gotta do is tap on whatever part of the screen you want to zero in on, then use your fingers to adjust the box around it or change the specific portion of text that's highlighted to get the right focus.

JR

If that looks familiar — well, it should. I told ya it was easy, right?!

Now, one more option — in case you'd rather avoid Assistant or for any reason aren't seeing the "Search screen" option within Assistant as described above. Ready?

• Once again, pull up something you want to search around on your phone.
• This time, capture a screenshot — by pressing your device's power and volume-down buttons at the same time.
• When you see the little pop-up confirming the screenshot, tap the share icon within it (the less-than symbol with dots on its end points).
• Your phone will now show you a list of places where you can share the screenshot. Select "Google: Search image," and you'll then be in the same exact place we were just talking about and ready to take it from there.

If you'd rather have an even more obvious shortcut for that share part of the process, you can install the official Google Lens shortcut app — which will add "Lens" itself into the list of available options. (The end result will be exactly the same either way, so it's really just a question of which text and icon you'd prefer to see.)

And hey, how 'bout that? You've just granted yourself the same superpower Circle to Search will offer today — a full week ahead of its release and in a way that'll work on most any Android device instead of only a select few.

That, my friend, is the power of a platform that puts the control squarely in your hands. Some days, you've just gotta love it.

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