After successfully making its way to Circle to Search (CtS), Google’s AI Mode is now receiving a critical update that makes it all the more useful (and conversational) for your quick on-screen queries.
For reference, Google’s improved CtS with AI Mode first rolled out to Samsung’s latest foldables earlier this year. It subsequently expanded to other Android devices.
Since its rollout, the enhanced version has allowed users to scribble their screens and get results powered by AI Mode. However, this only applies to the initial query and not follow-up questions. That limitation appears to be now be in the process of being phased out.
As highlighted by the folks over at Android Authority after digging into Google app version 16.47.49, CtS should now return answers to additional text queries directly via AI Mode. Before the update, said additional queries defaulted to regular image search with standard, non-AI results.
The new build introduces a new search bar at the bottom of the CtS results UI, as seen in the screenshot below. Follow-up queries submitted through the new search bar are taken up by AI Mode.
Teased in July, delivered in November
Credit: Android Authority
Old (left), new (right)
It’s worth noting that Google teased this functionality all the way back in July, but it seemingly never made its way out widely.
“Simply long press the home button or navigation bar, then circle, tap, or gesture on what you want to search. When our systems determine an AI response to be most helpful, an AI Overview will appear in your results. From there, scroll to the bottom and tap “dive deeper with AI Mode” to ask follow-up questions and explore content across the web that’s relevant to your visual search,” wrote the tech giant at the time, which is exactly what we’re seeing now!
Google app’s version 16.47.49 hasn’t rolled out for me just yet. If it has rolled out to you, are you seeing the new search bar at the bottom of the results? Let us know in the comments below!
