Circle to Search is now available on the Pixel Tablet [U]

Abner Li | May 10 2024 - 12:02 pm PT

Following the Pixel Fold last month, Circle to Search is now starting to roll out on the Pixel Tablet.

Update 5/10: Circle to Search is now available on the Pixel Tablet with Android 14. Google mentioned the rollout with the standalone Pixel Tablet earlier this week. It also teased that the Gemini app is coming this summer.

Original 5/2: The visual search rollout has been quite piecemeal. On the Pixel side, it started with the 8 and 8 Pro in late January before coming to the 7 and 7 Pro in March. Google next brought it to the 6 series and then the 7a. The Pixel Fold launch came in early April.

As of today, we’re only seeing it on Pixel Tablets running Android 15 Beta 1.2 (h/t Android Authority). A device running the stable Android 14 release doesn’t have it yet.

The UI, which was already present on the Fold’s inner screen, is unchanged with an edge-to-edge results sheet appearing after you make a selection. It more than works, but looks a bit unoptimized and overly wide, especially since Google didn’t stretch out the search bar.

On Android 15, you cannot launch Circle to Search if you have “Always show Taskbar” enabled. Meanwhile, it cannot be triggered on the homescreen since the navigation bar does not appear. It does activate if you use 3-button navigation.

Compared to phones, you cannot disable it from Settings > System > Navigation mode just yet.