If you saw the Galaxy S24 launch this week and wondered what “Circle to Search” is and whether it matters for your website, here is the short answer. Circle to Search is a new Android feature that lets people search anything on their screen by drawing a circle around it, without leaving the app they are in. It starts rolling out on 31 January 2024, and it makes visual search a lot easier to reach.
Google announced it on 17 January 2024, the same day Samsung showed its new phones. In this article I explain how Circle to Search works, which phones get it, how it connects to Google Lens and multisearch, and what I think site owners should check now.
What Is Circle to Search?
Circle to Search is a way to start a Google search from whatever is on your phone screen. You might be reading a message, scrolling social media or watching a video. You press and hold, mark the thing you are curious about, and Google shows results in a panel at the bottom of the screen.
The key point is that you don’t switch apps. Before this, you had to take a screenshot, open the Google app or Lens, upload the image and then search. Circle to Search removes most of those steps.
Google describes it as part of a wider goal: letting people search “any way and anywhere”. Voice search and camera search through Google Lens already exist. Circle to Search is the next step, because it works on top of any screen, not just your camera.
What You Can Select
According to Google, you can select images, text or videos on your screen. There are four ways to mark what you want:
- Circle an object, such as a pair of sunglasses in a video.
- Highlight a word or phrase, such as a term you don’t know.
- Scribble over something, which is handy for odd shapes.
- Tap an item to select it quickly.
You can also add words to your search. For example, you could circle a dish in a food photo and ask why it is popular. That mix of image plus text is what Google calls multisearch.
When and Where Circle to Search Launches
Google says Circle to Search launches globally on 31 January 2024. It starts on a small group of premium Android phones:
- Pixel 8
- Pixel 8 Pro
- The new Samsung Galaxy S24 series (S24, S24+ and S24 Ultra)
In its Circle to Search announcement, Google says it will work in all languages and locations where these phones are sold. So this is not a US-only test, which is unusual for a new search feature.
Google has not said when other Android phones will get it. I would expect more devices over time, because Google rarely builds a feature like this for only three phone families. But that is my guess, not something Google has confirmed.
There is no iPhone version. iPhone users can still use Google Lens inside the Google app, which gives similar results with a few more taps.
How to Use Circle to Search
Once your phone has the feature, the process is simple. Here are the steps Google describes:
- Open anything on your screen. This can be a chat, a social app, a web page or a video.
- Long-press the home button or the navigation bar. The navigation bar is the thin line at the bottom of the screen on phones that use gesture navigation.
- Mark what you want to search. Circle, highlight, scribble on or tap the item.
- Add words if you need to. Type a question to narrow the search, such as a colour, a price or “how does this work”.
- Check the results. They appear in a panel over your current app, and you can go back to what you were doing when you are done.
Here is a practical example. You are watching a short video and see a lamp you like. Instead of pausing, screenshotting and searching later, you long-press, circle the lamp and see similar products and where to buy them.
How Circle to Search Relates to Google Lens and Multisearch
Circle to Search is not a new search engine. It is a new way in. The results come from the same visual search technology behind Google Lens.
Lens has let people search with their camera for years. In 2022, Google added multisearch to Lens, so you could search with a photo and words together. I wrote about that in my guide to Google multisearch and searching with images and text. Later that year, at Search On 2022, Google added multisearch near me and support for more than 70 languages.
What changes now is how easy it is to reach. Lens needs you to open an app and point a camera or pick a photo. Circle to Search lives at the system level of the phone, so it is always one gesture away.
AI-Powered Overviews in Multisearch
In the same announcement, Google added generative AI to multisearch. When you point your camera or upload a photo and ask a question, you can now get an AI-written overview, not just visual matches.
Google’s example is a board game you find at a yard sale. You take a photo, ask “How do you play this?” and get a summary of the game with links to learn more.
Some details matter here:
- These AI overviews in multisearch are launching in English in the US for everyone. You don’t need to join Search Labs.
- You use them by tapping the Lens camera icon in the Google app on Android or iOS.
- Outside the US, people who opted into the Search Generative Experience (SGE) can preview them.
- Google says the AI overviews are also available through Circle to Search.
This is the first time an SGE-style AI answer has moved out of Labs to everyone in the US. If you followed my first look at SGE in Search Labs, this is a sign of how Google plans to roll those tests out: one feature at a time, where it proves useful.
Is Circle to Search the Same as a Screenshot Search?
Not quite. Some phones already let you search a screenshot with Lens. Circle to Search is different in three ways:
- You choose exactly which part of the screen to search, so results are more focused.
- You can add a text question in the same step.
- You stay inside the app you were using.
In my experience, small steps like these change behaviour. When a task needs four taps, most people don’t bother. When it needs one gesture, it becomes a habit.
Why Circle to Search Matters for SEO
Circle to Search does not change Google’s ranking systems. But it changes how some people will start searches, and that affects which pages and images get seen.
Here is how I think about it.
More Searches Start From an Image
Many questions are hard to type. “What is that plant?” or “Where can I buy that jacket?” are easy to ask with a picture and hard to ask with words.
Circle to Search makes these visual searches much easier, especially on social media and video apps. If people use it a lot, more of your discovery could come from image-led searches rather than typed keywords.
Shopping Is the Obvious Use Case
Google’s own examples lean on shopping: sunglasses in an outfit video, a bag and a pair of boots. Google also says Search and Shopping ads will keep showing in their dedicated ad slots on the results page.
For ecommerce sites, this means your product images and product data become more important. If someone circles a jacket that looks like yours, you want your product to be a strong match.
Queries Get More Specific
Because people can add text to an image, searches become very specific. “This sofa but in green” or “this recipe without dairy” are typical multisearch queries.
Pages that answer narrow, detailed needs have a better chance here than broad pages. That fits what I already recommend in my SEO priorities for 2024: clear, specific content written for real people.
Some Questions Will Be Answered Without a Click
With AI overviews now inside multisearch and Circle to Search, some simple questions will be answered right in the results panel. “What is this called?” might not need a visit to any website.
I don’t think this is a reason to panic. People who want to buy, compare or learn in depth will still click. But I would not build content that only answers a one-line question someone could get from a picture.
What to Check on Your Site Now
You can’t optimise for Circle to Search directly. There is no special tag or setting for it. What you can do is make your images and pages easy for Google to understand, because that is what visual search depends on.
When I audit a site for image search, these are the things I check first.
1. Use Real, Clear Images
Visual search works by matching what someone circles with images Google knows about. Original, sharp photos that show the product or subject clearly are easier to match than tiny or heavily edited images.
For products, show the item from more than one angle. I usually see stores rely on a single supplier photo that dozens of other sites also use, which gives Google no reason to pick them.
2. Write Useful Alt Text and File Names
Alt text (a short text description of an image in the HTML) helps Google understand what an image shows. Describe the image plainly, and don’t stuff keywords into it.
File names help a little too. Google’s own image SEO best practices say a name like my-new-black-kitten.jpg is better than IMG00023.JPG.
<img src="green-velvet-sofa-3-seater.jpg"
alt="Green velvet three-seater sofa with wooden legs">3. Place Images Near Relevant Text
Google uses the text around an image, including captions and page titles, to understand it. An image of a sofa on a page about that sofa, with a clear caption, is much easier to understand than the same image in a random gallery.
4. Make Sure Google Can Find Your Images
Google says it doesn’t index images set as CSS backgrounds. Use standard <img> elements for images you want found in search.
If you have many images, or images loaded in unusual ways, an image sitemap can help Google discover them.
5. Keep Product Data Complete
If you sell products, add Product structured data (code that tells Google the name, price and availability of a product) to your product pages. If you use Google Merchant Center, keep your feed accurate and your images up to date.
This will not guarantee you show in Circle to Search. But complete, correct product data is what shopping results are built on.
6. Keep Image Pages Fast on Mobile
Circle to Search happens on phones, so the clicks it sends will land on mobile pages. Compress large images and use responsive images so phones don’t download huge files. A slow page wastes a click that was hard to earn.
What We Don’t Know Yet
The feature isn’t live yet, so a lot is still unclear. I would keep these open questions in mind:
- Reporting. Google has not said how clicks from Circle to Search will appear in Search Console or analytics, or if they will be separated at all.
- Usage. We don’t know how many people will use it. It depends on whether it becomes a habit and how fast it reaches more phones.
- Result layout. We have seen demos, but not how results look across many types of searches.
I’d avoid anyone who claims to have “Circle to Search optimisation” figured out before launch. Nobody outside Google has real data yet.
My Take on Circle to Search
I think Circle to Search is one of the more useful search features Google has shipped in a while. It solves a real problem: seeing something on a screen and having no easy way to ask about it.
For most websites, it doesn’t need a new strategy. It needs the basics done well: good images, clear text around them and accurate product data. Those basics already help in Google Images and Lens, so the work is never wasted.
Where I would put a bit more focus is ecommerce and any site where looks matter, such as fashion, home, food and travel. In those areas, a visual search is often the first step before someone buys.
Conclusion
Circle to Search lets Android users search anything on their screen with a quick gesture, starting on 31 January 2024 on the Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro and Galaxy S24 series. It is built on Google Lens and multisearch, and it now includes AI overviews for some questions.
It doesn’t change how Google ranks pages, but it makes visual search much easier to start. A good next step is to pick your ten most important product or content pages and check their images: are they original, clear, well described and easy for Google to find? If you want a refresher on how image-and-text searches work, read my guide to Google multisearch next.
