Circle to Search could soon look up the sounds you hear

Summary

• Google’s Circle to Search is becoming more intuitive, with potential audio search capabilities on the horizon.
• Assistant and Gemini also offer similar functions, like identifying songs or language translations, making Google services even more versatile.
• The new audio search button in the beta version could bring multimodal input options, refining search results with voice prompts.

Google built Assistant, Gemini, Lens, and Circle to Search as overlapping accessories to Search, making the service significantly more intuitive and accessible on the best Android devices. The latter is the latest addition, announced alongside the Samsung Galaxy S24 series a few months ago. Although the feature was Samsung-exclusive for starters, it is now available on other devices too. While the current functionality allows looking up visuals on your screen, an app researcher managed to activate an audio search button as well.

Describing an earworm song you cannot remember the name for, or requesting instant translation for a foreign language can be challenging. Google has dedicated apps like Translate built for these situations, but Assistant handles them equally well — you can ask the name of the song that’s playing at a café, or just hum a tune for results.

While Circle to Search is more like Lens or reverse image search in a browser, the service could soon accept multimodal input like Gemini and assist with audio input as well. Popular app researcher @AssembleDebug on X (formerly Twitter) shared a screenshot of a new audio input button appearing beside the search button in beta version 15.24.28.29 of the app.

Specifics regarding the button’s capabilities remain unknown

Although the button doesn’t appear by default, the sleuth managed to activate the relevant UI components. However, it still doesn’t reveal what the button will do when pressed. On the one hand, there’s a good chance it will enable multimodal input, allowing you to refine the search using a voice prompt, just like the functionality spotted for Lens.

Alternatively, it could facilitate voice search like Assistant, so you can find the songs playing in your vicinity or perform a simple voice search, with all the benefits of Circle to Search. Google has plenty of overlapping features, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the company gave Circle to Search more Assistant or Gemini-like features. Hopefully, we will learn more about this curious addition in the coming months.