My favorite Circle to Search feature is also the most underrated

While Google’s Circle to Search is a handy tool in theory, I find that in practice, the results vary significantly. Sometimes the answers it gives me are spot-on, and other times, they are wildly inconsistent. As a result, Circle to Search has become one of those tools I don’t actually use that much despite all its advertised benefits. That is, with the exception of one very handy feature that I’m using it for more and more every day.

Circle to Search is generally good at identifying products that are available online, but when it comes to recognizing other items, my experience has been mixed. It’s possible that this is because I’m in a non-Western market, since LLM training data seems to skew towards the US, Europe, and other Western regions.

I’ve used the Circle to Search to try to identify plants, insects, phone models, and more. I’ve also just tested it to see if it can identify my cat’s breed. More often than not, it doesn’t produce the right results. It frequently misidentifies the plants in my garden, choosing species from different regions around the world.

When I tried to use it to help me identify a bug infesting one of my plants, it even gave a different answer every time. The first time around, it told me they were zombie ants — so I thought I was having a The Last of Us situation in my garden. The only way I found an answer was by asking my Android Authority colleagues and using a single picture on a local website to figure out that they were lantana bugs.

Circle to Search also thinks that my HONOR 400 Pro is an iPhone, something I realized after some readers accused me of using an Apple device in some of my photos. And when it comes to my cat, Circle to Search thinks that his unusual ears are a result of him being a Scottish Fold or another breed with folded ears. However, it’s due to a partial pinnectomy. You can tell he’s not a Scottish Fold or another one of these folded purebreds because of the shape of his face and eyes.

All in all, since Circle to Search’s accuracy isn’t great, I don’t find myself using it that much.

There is one exception, though. Circle to Search is currently the easiest way to copy text in apps that don’t allow you to easily select parts of messages. I experience this the most in WhatsApp and Slack, since both apps only let you copy an entire message. But when I hold the home button to activate Circle to Search, I can highlight individual pieces of text and copy them to my clipboard.

I first tried this in a local Pokémon Go community group. In the group, we include our in-game names and friend codes as member tags so that it’s easy to add each other for raids. However, WhatsApp doesn’t allow you to copy member tags. Tapping on them simply opens the person’s profile. We realized that by enabling Circle to Search, we could easily copy each other’s friend codes. I didn’t even need to circle the text I wanted to copy. Simply tapping on it was enough for the overlay to select it for me.

I’ve tried this trick in other apps where selecting text isn’t always possible. It works for search engine previews that you usually can’t select, social media posts, tasks in apps, and more. You can even use it to select text in images. Essentially, Circle to Search enables on-demand OCR. Because it’s linked to a home button shortcut on Android, it’s incredibly easy to activate, too.

Since Circle to Search is available on most new Android phones, it’s also a trick you can try even if you don’t own a Pixel. In fact, non-Pixel owners stand to benefit the most from it. On Pixel phones, you can already select text using the app switcher UI. But that feature isn’t available on other Android devices.

While a simple OCR screen reader is not a feature that attracts as much hype as pulling product recommendations from an image or translating text from another language, this simple feature is the one I actually use the most. Unlike image identification, it’s also one that’s much less prone to errors. I haven’t come across an instance yet where Circle to Search misread the text I was selecting and copying. Simplicity and reliability are a recipe for success in this case.