Circle to Search may be about to change how you experience its output

If you’re not using Circle to Search on a regular basis, chances are you’re not getting the most out of your phone. Google’s screen-searching tool has emerged as one of Android’s most useful features, letting us effortlessly pull text out of images, track down where pictures where taken, and so much more. Today we’re taking a look at what could be coming up next for Circle to Search, with Google tweaking how it delivers its analysis.

So far, you get started with Circle to Search with a long press on the home button or nav handle, then highlight the section of the screen you’re interested (and spoiler: You don’t actually need to draw a circle). Then you see a card slide up from the bottom of the screen with your results:

Right now, these are normal Google Search results — we usually see an AI Overview up top, then visual matches, and websites below. And if you want to focus on another kind of results, or jump over to AI Mode, you can get there with a tap.

Looking through the changes present in version 17.3.59.sa.arm64 beta of the Google app for Android, we’ve been able to activate a slightly different workflow for Circle to Search.

None of this is yet user-facing, even with this latest update, but Google has implemented the groundwork for having Circle to Search present its results with more of an AI focus. With this new workflow enabled, you still initiate a Circle to Search session the very same way as before, but now, Google defaults to AI Mode for its output:

Critically, you’re not forced to stick with AI Mode, and just like now, you can switch between all your options for results by just tapping on the bar.

Considering Google’s increasing emphasis on all things AI, this kind of prioritization makes a lot of sense. Like we said, it’s not live just yet, but we would not be surprised at all to see Google flip the switch on this — even if that just means some A/B testing — in the near future.