The Samsung Galaxy S21 series now runs Circle To Search.
Janhoi McGregorAfter promising budget phone owners a new AI tool last week, Samsung is now rolling out the update to millions of Galaxy users.
Circle to Search, which debuted on the Galaxy S24 in January and has featured heavily in Samsung’s Galaxy AI marketing, is now releasing to several devices in Samsung’s budget smartphone range. The full list includes the Galaxy A55, A54, A35 and A34. The Galaxy Tab S9 FE and Tab S9 FE+ will also receive the update.
SamMobile says the Galaxy Quantum 4 will also receive the update. Combined with the Galaxy S21 getting the AI tool earlier this year, the site estimates that 25 million phones are included in this update.
Samsung had previously said that 100 million phones were to get Galaxy AI via the One UI 6.1 OS release, so it’s clear that the company is trying to place mobile AI tools in as many hands as possible. This explains why the Korean company has focused its efforts on distributing Circle to Search and not other AI tools.
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First, Circle to Search doesn’t require powerful hardware to run like other Galaxy AI skills do. It is essentially a revamped version of Google Lens, which works on virtually all Android phones.
Google and Samsung have also expanded the feature’s abilities far beyond drawing circles around images to initiate a Google search. It can translate text, scan QR codes and there’s a homework help component that creates a step-by-step guide for solving math problems (without actually solving it).
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Google is extending Circle to Search’s abilities even further with a new audio identification function, which appears to be rolling out in waves to some Android users.
A Redditor discovered that when they launched Circle to Search, a new symbol appeared next to the translation option to identify music tracks. Pixel phones already have a similar feature called Now Playing, which displays a track ID on the device lock screen if it picks up music. But the new Circle to Search functionality will allow users to actively tell their phones to listen for specific songs, potentially replacing third-party apps like Shazam.
I suspect Google will want to add more AI-powered features to Circle to Search as a way of getting its Gemini technology in more hands. What will be interesting to see is if Samsung and Google decide to roll out other less performance-intensive features, like Live Translate or Chat Assist, to older phones in future updates.
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