Circle To Search Update Extends Long-Press And Boosts Vibration

Following the redesign last month, Google has updated Circle to Search with a longer, more prominent vibration pattern.

Over the past day, Google has rolled out a change when activating Circle to Search. Upon long-pressing on the Android gesture handle, you’ll notice a more forceful vibration. These haptics leave no doubt that you’re activating CtS, which might help reduce accidental triggers.

The vibration continues for a longer period before the search bar slides up from the bottom. As such, this gives you an opportunity to release (raise your finger) and cancel the screen search. 

We’re seeing this Circle to Search vibration change with the stable Google app release (version 16.4.36) on Pixel devices. It does not appear to be live yet on non-Google phones we checked today, but will presumably come to all users.

The Circle to Search interface was just simplified so that the search bar, song lookup, and translate shortcut are housed in the same pill-shaped container. There are also color adjustments to the panel and initial shimmer, while the animations for appearance and disappearance are now a simple up/down slide.

In terms of new features, CtS now highlights phone numbers, email addresses, and links for one-tap actions (dialing/emailing/browsing), while place, image, and object queries will generate AI Overviews for more detailed responses.

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