Circle to Search’s translation feature is in for a massive upgrade (Updated: Hands on)

Update, August 18, 2025 (09:46 AM ET): It appears that Circle to Search’s Live Translate feature is already rolling out to some Google app beta users in the form of Scroll and Translate. Check out our demo for more details.

Original article, August 18, 2025 (04:45 AM ET): Google’s Circle to Search is a stellar search feature that allows you to look up information about anything on the screen. Besides its search functionality, Circle to Search lets you translate any static text on the screen, and the functionality is about to get a big boost that will enable translation for moving text as well.

We recently learned about Google testing a new “Live Translate” feature within Circle to Search. As likely implied by the use of “live,” the feature extends translation beyond static images to other rapidly changing interfaces, such as web pages, or media, such as GIFs and videos. Although the feature is currently under development (and remains far from perfect), we were able to see some aspects working, giving us an indication of how it could function after all.

Live Translate is not live at the moment, but we were able to reverse engineer some settings to enable its test version. The current Live Translate trigger is nested within the Circle to Search’s app drawer (which itself is being tested) that combines other features such as the regular screen translation feature and song identification. Once launched, it asks you whether you’d like it to work for the entire screen or just specific apps, as with the new screen recorder launched in Android 15.

Live Translate launches with a slick new animation and a rainbow gradient along the edges of the display, which is visible for the entire duration that the feature is in use. The preferred output language for the Live Translate feature can be set using a floating overlay. This overlay can also be moved around the display or even minimized to expose text from a particular section of the display.

The floating overlay also comes with a crop feature, which likely translates the text from only a portion of the display. However, it does not appear to be working for us at the moment. Next to it is a button that toggles Live Translate off, triggering a return to the standard Circle to Search interface.

Currently, the Live Translate feature is not fully functional, and the translated text stays only for a short duration. This did not allow us to test the feature with videos or interpret the delay in translation, though we hope to do so as we learn about more updates to the feature.