Summary
- Google’s Circle to Search gesture, allowing for quick content search by scribbling or circling on your screen, is adding translate support.
- This feature speeds up translating on-screen content with a simple button.
- Circle to Search is also coming to all currently supported Pixel devices and to Samsung phones being updated to One UI 6.1.
Alongside the Samsung Galaxy S24 series launch in mid-January, Google announced Circle to Search, a new system-wide gesture enabling quick content search of what’s on your phone’s screen. You can trigger the new way to search by long-pressing on the home button or the navigation gesture bar and then scribble or circle on a subject to get more information about it. To increase the feature’s usefulness, Google is adding translate support to Circle to Search. It is also expanding the gesture’s availability to its entire currently supported Pixel lineup of devices.
Currently, if you invoke Circle to Search and circle or scribble on some text, you get the option to copy or translate it. This method can be tedious when you want to translate a PDF or all text on your phone’s screen in one go. Translate integration in Circle to Search will make this easier. Once it rolls out to you, simply tap the translate shortcut next to the search bar in Circle to Search. Your phone then automatically detects the on-screen content’s language and converts it into English or your specified language.
If you frequently receive documents or PDFs in a foreign language, the ability to directly translate on-screen content using Circle to Search should significantly speed up your workflow. It will also make translating foreign language content in images easier.
Circle to Search is coming to more Pixel and Samsung devices
Besides the handy translation addition, Google is expanding Circle to Search’s availability to more devices. Since its January debut, the system-wide gesture has been available on the Galaxy S24 and Pixel 8 series. The Pixel 7 lineup gained support for the gesture with the March 2024 Feature Drop. Now, Circle to Search is making its way to more Pixel devices, including the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, Pixel 6a, and Pixel 7a. It’s also “coming soon” to the Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet.
Additionally, Samsung’s 2023 flagship devices — the Galaxy S23 series, Z Fold 5, Flip 5, and Tab S9 series — will gain support for the gesture with their upcoming One UI 6.1 update, which is due to roll out later this week. There’s no word from Google if Circle to Search will expand to other non-Pixel and non-Galaxy devices in the near future, but it may take until October judging by a footnote spotted in a Samsung support document.
