Google rolls out Scroll and Translate for Circle to Search on Android

Google is rolling out a major upgrade to Circle to Search, its gesture-based lookup tool on Android, that allows translations to continue automatically as users scroll or switch apps. The company said the new Scroll and Translate feature begins rolling out this week on Android, starting with select Samsung Galaxy devices, and is designed to eliminate the need to restart translation whenever on-screen content changes.

To use the feature, users long press the home button or navigation bar to launch Circle to Search, tap the Translate icon and select Scroll and Translate. Google said the current screen is translated immediately and that translations will follow as the user scrolls through a page or moves between apps. The experience displays a glowing border around the screen and a small pill indicating the target language, and users can tap an X to end the continuous translation, Google wrote in a blog post.

Google framed the update as a response to how people use Circle to Search, calling translation "one of the most-used features" and saying the capability helps users get "more context for social posts from creators who speak a different language, or browse menus when you're...