Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
Circle to Search on a Xiaomi 14T Pro
TL;DR
- Google appears to be testing out a new visual tweak for Circle to Search.
- The new animation features a rush of blue followed by colorful balls bouncing around the screen
For most people, Circle to Search’s (CtS) UI is just fine the way it is. However, that’s not stopping Google from trying to find ways to improve the feature’s looks. For example, last month, we found Google toying around with the entry and exit animations on CtS. It seems the company is at it once again trying out a new animation.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
Normally, when you activate CtS, it will start an animation where a wave of shimmering light overtakes the screen. However, it appears some users are starting to see something different.
A Galaxy S25 Ultra user who didn’t wish to be named tipped us off to a new CtS animation. The user was on version 16.5.33.ve.arm64 of the Google app. You can check out the new visual tweak in the video below.
In this new animation, users are greeted by a rush of blue followed by colorful balls bouncing around the screen. It’s quite different from the waving shimmer we normally see when activating CtS.
Additionally, we were messaged by another user who also saw the same change to the feature. We tried to recreate the experience on our own devices, but we were unable to replicate the animation.
While it’s unclear if Google has any intentions of rolling out this new animation to the masses, it has recently pushed out at least one update. Google has made the activation vibration for CtS longer and more prominent than before, a change that has apparently irked some users.
