A new ‘Circle to Search’ trick is available on Samsung’s latest Galaxy phones It lets you sing or hum songs that you want to identify The feature worked well in our early hands-on demos
Of course, Shazam and Google Assistant, or even Gemini, can help you identify a song playing at a coffee shop or while on the go. But what about that tune you’ve got stuck in your head that you’re desperate to put a name to?
Suffice it to say, it’s not a problem I have for any of Springsteen, but it happens for other songs, and Samsung’s latest and greatest – the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus and S25 Ultra – might just cure this. That’s thanks to the recent expansion of Google’s Circle to Search on devices.
Launched on the Galaxy S24 last year and then extended to other devices like Google’s own family of Pixel phones, you can long-press the bottom and then circle something on the screen to find out what it is or find out more.
For example, it could be a funny hat in a TikTok or Instagram Reel video, a smart button down or even more info about a concert going on or a place like San Jose – where Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked took place.
Call around to search for songs
(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)
But now when you long press the start button – or engage the assistant in another way – you will see a musical note icon.
From there, you can just start singing as Google will tell you it’s listening. I, as well as my colleague, TechRadar’s Editor-at-Large Lance UIanoff, then hummed two tracks – “Hot To Go” by Chapell Roan, which the Galaxy S25 Ultra took trying to identify properly – and then it got “Fly Me To” The Moon ” (a classic) on the first try.
Although Lance had to hum a good bit, it actually figured out what that song inside our head was, and that could make the latest facet of Circle to Search a pretty handy feature. Of course, it will also do the job of Shazam and listen to whatever is playing when you select it via the microphone built into your device as well.
Additionally, you can use it to loop a video on the screen and find out what was playing – as you can see in the handy embed below, it was able to do this for a TikTok. That ultimately doesn’t seem all that useful, given that a video on TikTok — or an Instagram reel — will note the audio it uses. But this can be especially useful for a long YouTube video that uses different background music, or if you’re streaming a title and can’t figure out the song.
(Image credit: Future)
Google’s latest tool extension for Circle to Search will be available from day one on the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25 Plus and Galaxy S25 Ultra, but it’s worth pointing out that the search giant – turned AI giant – has been teasing this feature a bit , and some found even it hides in existing code. After our demo of it on the S25 Ultra, we had a feeling it would arrive elsewhere, and that it should arrive on other devices with Circle to Search.
As for when it will arrive on the Galaxy S24, Z Flip 6 or Z Fold 6, that remains to be seen, and we also wonder the same question for Samsung’s other new Galaxy AI features. And if you’re eager to learn more about the Galaxy S25 family, check out our hands-on and our Galaxy S25 live blog for the event.
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