Our phones are a window to the world’s information — whether it’s to explore a passion, solve a problem, buy the perfect gift, learn a new skill or simply find a reason to smile. And when you’re truly immersed in a moment of discovery or exploration, it can feel disruptive to stop what you’re doing and switch to another app to learn more. With Circle to Search, you can get the answers you need without breaking that flow.

Think of it as an AI image search tool that allows you to search anything on your Android and Pixel phone with a simple gesture without switching apps. Now, with a simple gesture, you can select what you’re curious about in whatever way comes naturally to you — like circling, highlighting, scribbling or tapping — and you will be provided with AI-powered overviews and rich, visual information that you need. 

For example, maybe you need help identifying a few items a creator wore in their “Outfit of the Day” video, but they didn’t tag the brands and you can’t find the words to best describe it. Just long press the home button or navigation bar on your Pixel phone to activate Circle to Search. From there, you can select any item that you see with your preferred gesture — like circling their sunglasses — to quickly find similar, shoppable options from retailers across the web. You could scribble the bag and tap on the boots to look those up, too — all without leaving where you are. When you’re done, simply swipe away and you’re right back where you started.

Sometimes, you might want to ask more complex questions about what you see. Let’s say you're browsing social media and have been seeing everyone re-creating the viral Chinese fruit snack, Tanghulu. With multisearch — you can search with text and images at the same time. Simply circle around the Tanghulu and ask a question, like "Why are these so popular?" You'll soon find out that more about this snack and that they’re trending because of their easy to make, sweet and visually appealing. Just like that, your curiosity is satisfied (although the photos might leave you with an appetite).

And yes, you can also use Circle to Search on YouTube! Say you’re on YouTube Shorts and you notice a video covering an unfamiliar topic: thrift flipping. With Circle to Search, you can quickly scribble over the text “thrift flip” to learn that it’s the process of purchasing items from a thrift store, fixing them up and then reselling them for a profit. Now that you know, you can easily close out and resume watching the video.

Circle to Search is available on Pixel 6 and later models.