Google to add 'Hold handle to search' & 'Hold home to search' shortcuts to invoke search over screen on Pixel devices

‘Circle to Search’ is one of those features jointly developed between Google and Samsung that were announced with the Galaxy S24 series recently. Both Samsung’s latest mobile flagships and the Pixel 8 series will receive it through an update starting January 31, but it seems that it will also bring some extra gestures to facilitate its use.

Android expert Mishaal Rahman posted on X (Twitter) that, once ‘Circle to Search’ is available on eligible devices, Google will include new gesture options under the ‘Gesture Navigation’ and ‘Button navigation’ settings:

• Hold handle to search
• Hold Home to search

In case you don’t know, ‘Circle (or highlight or scribble) to Search’ is a feature that allows you to do a direct search for anything you see on the screen of your device after activating it, simply using shapes or gestures like circles, lines, etc. So, the options mentioned above are a way to make it easier to ‘invoke’ the feature whenever you want, whether you use gesture navigation or the classic three-button bottom menu.

‘Circle to Search’ is part of the Galaxy AI suite that includes several features based on artificial intelligence thanks to the integration of Gemini Nano in the Galaxy S24 series. It’s also the product of direct collaboration between Google and Samsung, so many of the features are similar (or inherited) from those we first saw in the Pixel 8 series (especially the Pixel 8 Pro).

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