Google may bring more features to text-to-speech, Circle to Search: report

A report suggests that Google may be bringing more features to its AI-powered Circle Two Search, including text-to-speech functionality. The Visual Lookup feature, first announced in January, allows users to circle, tap or highlight an object on their screen through gestures and search it on the web. Google announced an update for it at its developer conference on May 14, equipping the feature with math-solving capabilities. Now a new report suggests that even more capabilities may be coming soon with three features in the works.

one in reportAndroid Authority, in collaboration with tipster AssembleDebug, revealed that the Circle to Search feature may soon read selected portions of the screen aloud. The discovery was reportedly made by tearing down the APK of the Google Beta app v15.20.36.29. This hints at potential text-to-speech capabilities coming to Circle Search. The report suggests that two other features – Listen and Select All, may also be introduced.

It was also reported that both the ‘Listen’ and ‘Select All’ features can be adopted from Google Lens, where the Listen feature reads the highlighted text out loud while the ‘Select Text’ option selects text present or visible in the image. Can highlight the camera viewfinder.

The report also suggests that a ‘Save’ option may be available to users when they select an area of ​​the screen to search. Using this option will reportedly save the screenshot to the Saved tab in the ‘Uploaded Images’ collection on the Google app instead of the device’s Gallery app, which is usually Google Photos.

In theory, all the features mentioned could contribute to the features recently introduced in Circle Two Search. Initially available only on the Samsung Galaxy S24 series, over the past few months it has made its way to other Android smartphones as well.

Since its launch, the feature has received several new updates aimed at enhancing its capabilities. One specific tool among them is a special tool that allows students to solve math and physics problems with step-by-step instructions. It uses LearnLM, a recently introduced family of AI Large Language Models (LLM) designed for learning, built on Google’s Gemini LLM.