Samsung believed enough in its AI-powered Circle to Search feature to promote it extensively at and after Unpacked. The investment appears to have paid off, as according to a recent study, a good portion of Galaxy S24 users bought the new flagship because they wanted to use Circle to Search, among other Galaxy AI features.
Circle to Search is now available for more devices, including 2023 flagship phones and tablets. And whether you love it or not care for it, it works as advertised. More so, it appears to have gained more popularity than Google Lens, even though they're both based on virtually the same AI and principles.
But with Circle to Search now reaching more devices, including S Pen tablets, we wish more than ever that Samsung would have given us new ways to summon the clever search tool.
Samsung should add Circle to Search to Air Command or S Pen button
We previously talked about why we feel like Samsung missed an opportunity by not letting users assign Circle to Search to the side key. Well, here are a couple of other things Samsung may have overlooked: the Air Command menu and the S Pen button.
Now that Galaxy AI and Circle to Search are available for S Pen tablets and more phones equipped with the stylus, we feel it would have made sense for the clever search feature to be readily available and accessible more easily by S Pen fans. Users can tap and hold the gesture hint with the S Pen to summon Circle to Search, but it can feel a bit fiddly.
Perhaps a better alternative would have been to add a Circle to Search shortcut to the Air Command menu and make the menu disappear instantly when the Circle to Search option is selected. And how about another option to access Circle to Search by pressing the S Pen button? That would have been fantastic.
There's no telling if Samsung will continue to think of better ways to let us interact with Circle to Search, but we hope that S Pen users will eventually have more options for interacting with this feature. For now, Samsung appears to be busy with bringing Galaxy AI to more devices, including ones released in 2022, which is great news.
