Newsletter
Circle to Search could soon become more useful by gaining the ability to read barcodes directly. Circle to Search was launched earlier this year alongside the Galaxy S24 series. Later, eligible Google Pixel phones also received it.
Being a relatively new feature, Circle to Search still has a lot of room for improvement. One of the sections where it can improve is the detection of barcodes. As many already know, Circle to Search is capable of detecting items on your screen when you highlight them in different ways. You can draw a circle around the items, or even just tap on them. The feature will then return the most relevant and potentially useful results related to that item.
For example, did a pair of shoes catch your attention? Circle them and you will receive details such as prices, where to buy them, similar images, and more. However, in the case of barcodes, the results are not very useful. In its current version, if you circle a barcode, Circle to Search will return images of other similar barcodes as a result. Ideally, it should read the barcode in question.
Circle to Search could soon read barcodes
That said, Google may be working to change this behavior and make it smarter. As spotted by Android Authority, Circle to Search would receive barcode reading support. The source found strings that reference this function in the latest Google app beta (15.19.45.29.arm64).
For now, there are only strings mentioning “barcode” and “omnient” (internal codename for Circle to Search). The option appears to be in very early stages of development, with nothing functional at the moment.
It is not yet known when Google could implement the barcode reader in Circle to Search if they do. It wouldn’t be the first feature that, for one reason or another, is discarded during development.