Ever since its introduction, Circle to Search has gotten juiced up in a variety of ways. But there was always one limitation to using the feature, which is that you had to be using either the default Google Assistant, or Gemini as your digital assistant. But it looks like the internet search giant has since decoupled the feature from the two.
As Android Authority explains, Circle to Search used to be locked behind the two flavours of Google digital assistants because of the way it worked behind the scenes. The feature makes use of the Android Assist API to basically take a screenshot before letting you do your circling, and only the default digital assistant was able to do so. Google also needed to be the default search engine for the feature to work.
Though as the report mentioned, the internet search giant has let Circle to Search work without using its own digital assistants. That being said, it’s unclear what changed behind the scenes for this to happen.
At any rate, this would probably primarily benefit users of Samsung flagships who, for whatever reason, preferred to use Bixby over the default, while still retaining access to Circle to Search. The same applies to other, less mainstream options out there, if those are what you prefer.
(Source: Android Authority)
