Latest news with #CircleToSearch
Android Authority
4 days ago
- Android Authority
OnePlus tablets are getting one of Android's best, and one of its worst, productivity features
Ryan Haines / Android Authority TL;DR The latest OxygenOS 15 update brings Google's Circle to Search and a new floating taskbar to the OnePlus Open and OnePlus Pad 2. Circle to Search allows users to quickly search anything on their screen by tapping, highlighting, or drawing over it. The floating taskbar, while aiming to balance productivity and screen real estate, lacks a quick toggle to switch styles and on tablets, it requires disabling gesture navigation for the fixed version. OnePlus makes some of the best Android tablets with some really useful productivity features. The company's Open Canvas, for example, sets the standard for mobile multitasking and is available across its tablets and foldables. While this feature first debuted on the OnePlus Open foldable, it later came to tablets through an over-the-air update. Now, a recent update brings two more major productivity features to its large-screen devices. Google's amazing Circle to Search feature is finally here for the OnePlus Open and Pad 2 With the latest OxygenOS 15 update for the OnePlus Open and OnePlus Pad 2, the company has brought Google's Circle to Search to its previous-generation foldable and tablet. Circle to Search allows you to quickly search anything on your screen by simply tapping, highlighting, or drawing over it. The feature debuted on last year's Galaxy S24 series and has since expanded to dozens of devices, including some OnePlus phones. While Circle to Search is available out of the box on the new OnePlus Pad 3, it's great to see OnePlus bring it to its older tablets as well. Technically, the rollout to the OnePlus Open and Pad 2 began last month with the OxygenOS 15.0.0.821 update, just ahead of the Pad 3's launch. This release time frame suggests that OnePlus develops its 'large screen' version of OxygenOS independently of a specific device, which would explain why new features like Circle to Search and the new floating taskbar arrive on its tablets and foldables around the same time. OnePlus borrows Google's floating taskbar feature, but it forgot to add one thing The new floating taskbar that OnePlus introduced in OxygenOS 15.0.0.821 is reminiscent of the one seen in stock Android. A short swipe up from the bottom reveals the new taskbar, which floats just above the bottom edge instead of spanning the screen's full width. From here, you can switch apps by tapping their icons or launch Open Canvas by dragging and dropping them. The taskbar automatically hides if you tap an item or anywhere outside of it. While the floating taskbar smartly balances productivity with screen real estate, it can be slower for multitasking compared to the old fixed version. Recognizing this trade-off, Google built a quick toggle into Android 15 to switch between the floating and fixed styles. Unfortunately, OnePlus has chosen not to implement this convenient toggle. Instead, like Samsung's One UI 7, OxygenOS forces you to dig through the Settings app to make the change. Even worse, on OnePlus tablets, the option to switch back to the fixed taskbar is missing entirely, unless you're willing to give up gesture navigation. On the OnePlus Open, you can at least switch between the floating and fixed taskbars by navigating to Settings > Foldable features > Task bar > Task bar style. On OnePlus tablets, however, this option is missing. Your only choice is to disable the taskbar completely from Settings > Accessibility & convenience > Task bar. You can also force the taskbar to stay pinned by switching to classic three-button navigation, but that means giving up modern gesture controls. Fixed taskbar on OnePlus tablets using three-button navigation Taskbar options on OnePlus tablets Even on foldables where the setting exists, the experience isn't perfect. Switching to the fixed taskbar doesn't restore old functionality, like long-pressing an empty spot to minimize it. Furthermore, the new swipe-up gesture seems to conflict with the one for going home, causing some users to accidentally exit an app when they meant to open the taskbar. This could be a sensitivity issue, but without a quick way to switch modes, it all adds up to a frustrating experience. While I like the idea of the floating taskbar, especially on the OnePlus Open where vertical space is precious, I'm not a fan of its current implementation. On Samsung devices, you can install the Good Lock 'Home Up' module to add a quick switch toggle, but no such workaround exists on OnePlus devices. Thankfully, OnePlus has a history of listening to customer feedback, so hopefully, the company will see these complaints and address them in a future software update. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
Android Authority
6 days ago
- Android Authority
Circle to Search could be getting an AI Mode upgrade, and here's what it looks like (APK teardown)
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority TL;DR Google is testing integrating Search's AI Mode into the Circle to Search feature. When the feature rolls out, users may be able to launch AI mode via text or voice from within the Circle to Search screen. Google Search's AI Mode breaks down your question into subtopics and conducts multiple simultaneous queries. It can be accessed by users in the US through the AI Mode icon in the Google widget on your home screen, or by selecting AI Mode from the Google app's home page. Google is all-in on AI and is adding AI to everything. US users can try out AI Mode in Google Search, and there are a couple of ways to launch the feature on your phone. You can use the AI Mode icon in the Google widget on your home screen or select AI Mode from the Google app's home page. In case you need a third way to launch AI Mode, Google could integrate AI Mode into Circle to Search as its default search mode. Authority Insights story on Android Authority. Discover You're reading anstory on Android Authority. Discover Authority Insights for more exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage you won't find anywhere else. An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release. Google app v16.22.44 beta includes code that indicates that Google could soon integrate AI Mode into Circle to Search. We've managed to activate the feature ahead of its launch to give you an early look at it: Here's a video demo of the upcoming feature: As you can see in the demo, AI Mode could potentially become the default way to search with Circle to Search. The Google Search bar that appears after triggering Circle to Search could feature a prominent 'Ask AI Mode' hint text and the AI Mode icon. The usual icons for Voice Input, Song Search, and Translate give it company in the Search bar. You can start an AI Mode search either by text or by voice. Once you start a search, you directly enter Google Search's AI Mode instead of the All tab within Google Search (which currently houses the AI Overviews amongst other things). The UI informs you that Google is doing a deeper search for your query, as AI Mode breaks down your question into subtopics and conducts multiple simultaneous queries. Thankfully, the result acknowledges that AI responses may include mistakes, which is a handy disclaimer given all the various ways AI can hallucinate and get things wrong. If you don't want to see AI Mode search results, you will likely need to tap on the Web tab in the Google Search response. Further, when using Circle to Search to select text on the screen, the search query will likely default to the Web tab instead of AI Mode (for now). So, for simpler queries where you don't need a whole lot of information and just need to know more about what is visible on your screen, you needn't unnecessarily burden AI for it. AI Mode within Circle to Search is not currently rolling out. We'll keep you updated when we learn more. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
Phone Arena
13-06-2025
- Phone Arena
Two new capabilities are added to the popular Circle to Search feature
Google's Circle to Search on Android phones has become one of those rare AI hits that might have reached this high level of popularity due to its simplicity. Hell, all of us can usually draw a circle and the simple name of the feature tells us exactly what to do and what information we can expect to get from the feature. Just because Circle to Search is popular doesn't mean that improvements can't be made. To use Circle to Search on your Android phone , you must use gesture navigation. Long press on the home gesture bar which is the little line at the bottom of the display. Draw a circle with your finger the item you want Google to search for. If you want to know more about a song playing in the background, long pressing the home gesture bar shows a Google search bar followed by a musical note inside a circle, and another circle with the Google Translate icon. New Circle to Search features will show you your recent song searches and translate an entire page. | Image credit-PhoneArena Press the musical note and quickly tap the history icon in the upper right that looks like a clock with an arrow curved around it. Tap on it and you'll see your "Recent Song Searches" page which shows the last few songs you've listened to, album cover art, the singer or the band who performed the song, the time you started listening to that tune, and a pill-shaped button that says "Show full history." If you press on one of the images you will be taken to a page where you can hear the particular song and can even select the "Lyrics" tab to see the words to the song. Instead of pressing the musical note on the search and shortcut bar after long pressing the home gesture bar, you can tap the circle containing the Google Translate icon. Tap the icon again and the full page will be translated. In the example I've embedded in this article, I translated one of my stories into Chinese (Yeah, you like it better that way. I get it. Yuck, yuck). Note that the translate feature won't work if you circle something on the screen first. Anyway, Google has given us two useful features in Circle to Search which should only serve to make the feature more popular than it is already.
Android Authority
11-06-2025
- Android Authority
Circle to Search is making it easier to get to your song search history (APK teardown)
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority TL;DR The latest Google app beta adds a shortcut to song search history for Circle to Search. There's also a new translate button that appears after something is circled. Circle to Search is a useful tool that can be used for a variety of purposes, from helping you find the name of a song to translating foreign languages. Since its debut, Google has been continually improving the feature by adding new abilities. In our latest APK teardown, we found that more changes are on their way. Authority Insights story on Android Authority. Discover You're reading anstory on Android Authority. Discover Authority Insights for more exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage you won't find anywhere else. An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release. While investigating the most recent beta of the Google app (version beta), we discovered two new changes to Circle to Search. These changes relate to the song recognition and translation functions. Starting with the music ID tool, a new icon now appears when you search for a song. After you activate Circle to Search and tap on the music note icon, you will now see a history icon in the top right corner of the screen. This icon is a shortcut to the 'Recent song searches' page, which began rolling out to beta testers in April. Here you'll be able to view all of your past searches, complete with song titles, thumbnails, and artist info. Next up, we have an additional button for translation. Currently, you can translate the entire screen by tapping on the translate button in Circle to Search. However, you lose the opportunity to translate if you circle something first. In this situation, you'll have to close out of Circle to Search and trigger it again if you want to translate some text. It looks like this will change soon, as a new translate button now appears after something is circled. You can check out the video above for an example. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
Android Authority
18-05-2025
- Android Authority
Circle to Search has a hidden trick every color lover should know about
Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority I'll admit: long-pressing the home button to trigger a visual search was a genius move by Google. I use Circle to Search more often than I ever thought, whether it's to identify plants, bugs, or famous landmarks in TV shows. Surprisingly, it also has a hidden talent for identifying colors. Many web pages and apps help identify colors, providing all the details you might need, and sometimes even more, like additional codes and values. The problem with these tools is that you must upload an image, describe the color, or use a color wheel or slider. They're not immediately accessible. With Circle to Search, long-pressing the home button beneath my thumb is all that's needed. Have you found a use case for Circle to Search? 0 votes Yes, I use it for almost everything! NaN % Yes, I use it in specific instances. NaN % I tried, but I never did find a good use for it. NaN % I've never used it, and don't believe it's useful for me. NaN % Color is all about perception. One person might see a gold dress, while another sees a blue one. To clarify this ambiguity, we assign specific names or values to colors. For instance, Aquamarine, Cerulean, and Navy Blue are all specific tints and shades of blue but vastly different. Whether ordering paint for your kitchen wall based on your Pinterest mood board or selecting complementary colors for a DIY Android widget, having a tool that can accurately identify colors is useful. What color is that couch? Circle to Search has an answer Andy Walker / Android Authority I hilariously stumbled upon this Circle to Search feature when trying to identify something else entirely, but I was interested to see how good it is when specifically targeting solid colors. I triggered the tool to test these capabilities and highlighted small splotches of solid colors on my home screen and various web pages. This activates a Google search with an AI Overview blurb, a list of related results, and specific hex or color codes in some cases. Below, I've included a few examples of this feature in action using Samsung's wallpapers. Sometimes, AI Overview provides a hex code. Alternatively, it offers context about that specific color, be it another identifier, like RGB or CMYK, or a few 'facts' about it. For instance, the dark blue (second image) represents 'depth, stability, and calmness' according to the search tool. This information may not be helpful to everyone, but it's just the type of description I'd need when choosing paint for a specific room. It still offers valuable information even if it doesn't have much to say about a color. This salmon shade I ran through it (third image) suggested a paint color available at my local hardware store! After seeing these results, I wanted to test how well Google knew Pantone colors. I pulled up a palette detailing the year's hues and got to work. It accurately identified Olive Green and provided an RAL code — a color identification system used for varnish, powder coatings, and plastics. Oddly, it struggles with more generic colors. It identified Pantone's Orange Peel as simply 'Pantone Orange' and offered a separate product using that shade. That's useful, I guess, but hundreds of Pantone orange varieties are available. Notably, if you're not using a solid color taken directly from the web, Circle to Search is easily influenced by textures, shadows, and the quality of your camera. The same couch will look different in direct sunlight and fluorescent light. Be aware of this when walking around with your camera, snapping products, and hoping to pinpoint their color later. It does a pretty good job with fabrics, though, offering more information on my couch cushion. A shade of gray paint on canvas. A cushion on a couch. A skein of Orange yarn. Just don't use it for professional work, OK? A more embarrassing miss occurred with a particularly fetching blue from Samsung's default wallpaper set. AI Overview identified it not as a color, but as a sanitary product. I'm unsure how AI Overview arrived at this answer, but it seemed pretty convinced! I also focused on the yellow dot in the image, which the tool believed was a part of a banana. This one did get a chuckle out ot me. That conviction becomes a problem in other ways, too. Take this accent color we use across Android Authority. Circle to Search mentions that the color is a 'mix of blue and green' and offers descriptions like Ocean Green, Dark Sea Green, and Sea Blue, which are in the ballpark but aren't home runs. Only when I scroll down to the related search results do I find a hex code that matches the color almost exactly. A more accurate answer exists, but AI Overview prioritizes the less precise information first. These errors are rare, but they affect the reliability of all the results I receive. I can't expect Circle to Search to be a perfect color identifier, but I'm surprised that it did so well in my tests. Look, I can't expect Circle to Search to be a perfect color identifier, especially compared to more specialized tools. Color science requires precision, and Circle to Search is designed as a general visual search tool. As I've mentioned, the results also depend on the source you're using. As a result, there's a degree of variability that's involved. Your phone's camera or screen might not capture or present a color-accurate image of a couch, cushion, wall, or plant pot, particularly when filters are applied or lighting conditions vary. It's also easily thrown by textures and shadows. In short, Circle to Search isn't for mission-critical work. You shouldn't use it for professional purposes, but for everyone else, it makes snapshot color identification more accessible. It's a great way to learn about colors or garner inspiration. I certainly learned plenty. Nevertheless, despite its flaws, I'm still surprised it did so well in my tests. With a little more work, Google could have a surprisingly reliable Circle to Search use case. I already use the tool to identify structures, dog breeds, flowers, and actors. I can now add colors to this rather odd list.
