What you need to know
- Google is reportedly working on a new button in Circle to Search to help users on Android become better gamers.
- The button, currently titled “Get Game Help,” will reportedly take a screenshot of your game and run it through the engine.
- Google recently introduced barcode/QR code scanning in Circle to Search alongside help for complex math problems.
Google is seemingly working on taking its device-wide search software to the next level for Android gamers.
In an APK teardown, the folks at Android Authority state that Google is potentially developing a new help function for games. The publication reportedly spotted a new suggested option called “Get Game Help.” What was discovered was pretty bare bones — though, the actual rollout may not expand much beyond it taking a snapshot of your screen before running a proper search.
With notable X tipster AssembleDebug assisting, the demo provided showed that Circle to Search will take a snapshot of your screen.
After placing it in the search field, it will supposedly “add some search text” on its own. This “text” looks to be the following statement: “Get help with this game.” Curiously, Circle to Search doesn’t specify (in its written query) what game the snapshot concerns.
From the quick test, Google Search can recognize the game in question; however, the results are extremely broad and don’t necessarily help.
There’s no telling when this feature will arrive for Android users. The post states it was discovered in version 16.0.7 of the Google app.
Early on, one thing to note is how general Search’s results are for this “get help with this game query.” Once it arrives, it might be beneficial for users to re-write the AI’s query to something more specific, which was also noted by the publication. Moreover, this feature could be of better to other games like Honkai: Star Rail or Zenless Zone Zero where the content is a little more defined — and the communities (think Reddit and X) for help.
The demo used Subway Surfer as an example and most of the results provided were basic as they covered Play Store results and TikTok videos.
Development is likely still progressing, so we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled for an official launch later on.
Last summer, Google expanded its Circle to Search capabilities by providing barcode scanning and help for math homework. When questioned, the company stated students could leverage Circle to Search for “symbolic math” equations and receive “step-by-step” help for how to solve them. Following its initial debut on Samsung’s Galaxy foldables, Google dropped it on its Pixels a couple of months later.
Circle to Search also piggybacks off Google’s AI Overviews for users attaching a screenshot and a quick query.