Perplexity brings Circle to Search-like feature to more Android devices

Perplexity‘s new Android feature mimics Google‘s Circle to Search functionality, allowing users to interact with on-screen content without leaving the app. This innovation represents a significant enhancement for Android users, potentially expanding this intuitive search capability to devices that couldn’t previously access it while keeping users within Perplexity’s ecosystem, which some reviewers have found superior to Google’s Gemini for certain tasks.

How it works: Perplexity’s implementation allows users to circle content on their screen and ask follow-up questions about it while staying within the Perplexity app.

• In the demonstration shared by CEO Aravind Srinivas, a user circled text about Roger Federer and verbally asked for “the net worth of this guy,” prompting Perplexity to identify Federer, search online, and deliver an answer.
• While the demo showed a response time of about 12 seconds compared to Google’s faster performance, both services provided the same information.

Why this matters: The feature brings advanced contextual search capabilities to a wider range of Android devices, including older models that don’t support Google’s official Circle to Search.

• Even for devices that can access Google’s version, having this functionality within Perplexity could be valuable for users who prefer its search experience.

Industry context: ZDNET testing has found Perplexity outperforms Google Gemini in several key areas that matter to users.

• Jack Wallen of ZDNET reported that Perplexity delivered more accurate responses, better problem-solving capabilities, improved follow-up handling, superior source citation, and better search engine functionality than Gemini.

What’s next: Srinivas indicated the feature is “coming soon” but didn’t provide a specific release date.

• The company will need to name the feature something different than “Circle to Search” since that term is trademarked by Google.