Circle to Search may not roll out beyond the Galaxy S24 and Pixel 8 for a long while

We’ve been impressed by the Circle to Search feature available on the Samsung Galaxy S24 series and the Google Pixel 8 phones, but if you don’t own one of those handsets then it looks like you’re going to be waiting a while to get it.

As per a press release (via SamMobile), issued by Samsung in the Netherlands celebrating record preorders in the country, the Circle to Search feature “may become available on Android devices from other brands from October 5”.

So just the eight months to wait then, if you don’t have a Pixel 8 or Galaxy S24. It sounds as though Samsung has signed some kind of exclusivity deal with Google, so that the likes of OnePlus and Motorola can’t take advantage of it for a certain period of time.

Early October is of course around the time that we get new versions of Android – Android 14 was pushed out on October 4 – so it’s possible that Circle to Search will become more widely available as part of the Android 15 update.

When September ends

The October 5 reference now seems to have vanished from the press release – so it’s apparently information that Samsung and Google didn’t want in the public domain, and may have been included in error.

That said, one line that still remains states that Circle to Search will be exclusive to Samsung and Google phones until September – so older Pixels and Galaxy handsets might get the functionality before that October 5 date.

If you’ve got no idea what we’re talking about, Circle to Search lets you circle, scribble, or tap on anything on screen to run a Google search on it. It’s like Google Lens, but easier to access from whatever app you happen to be in.

Those of you with phones that don’t already have Circle to Search, you might get it from Microsoft before you get it from Google: it looks as though a similar feature will soon be introduced in Microsoft Edge on mobile.

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