Ryan Haines / Android Authority I might be that annoying friend — the one who always wants to fact-check something. I’m not usually trying to be obnoxious, I just want to make sure I’m getting the correct information, especially when things are so easily faked right now (sorry, it’s true). Honestly, I’ve always been this way, and I think it started with a heavy reliance on Google Lens. Seriously, though, I used Google’s camera-based identifier for everything. Unfamiliar shoes? Google Lens. Weird plant? Google Lens. Dog I’ve never seen before? I’ll usually ask its owner, but you get the idea. Then, Google transitioned its default identification assistant to Circle to Search, emphasizing what was on your screen more, and it threw me for a loop. I struggled to adopt it in just the same way, and then the arrival of Apple Visual Intelligence made me wonder if I needed Google at all. At first, the answer was definitely yes. Apple Intelligence stumbled out of the gate, and some say it’s still struggling. Visual Intelligence, however, has made up ground in the year since its launch, and I think it’s finally ready to give Google some trouble, so I put the two head-to-head to find out. Visual Intelligence looks great, but Circle to Search is cleaner Ryan Haines / Android Authority I don’t know when we settled on it, but apparently, the color of AI is a rainbow — unless you ask Samsung, who thinks it’s blue. The good news, though, is that I like the pop of color on both Visual Intelligence and Circle to Search. It’s distinctive and makes it easy to tell what you’re searching for. In other words, if Apple or Google had settled on one color for their respective on-screen search tools, it would have been fine. You’d know when the feature was active and be perfectly capable of selecting an object on your screen. However, you’d always run the risk that it would match the primary color of your image or article and accidentally blend in with the background. Then, all accessibility bets are off. If not for the rainbow shine, I might not know just what I'd circled to search. Outside of the similar color schemes, I have to give Apple and Google a little more credit for their additional controls. Searching for what’s on your screen is one thing, but sometimes, you need more than an image. In the case of Visual Intelligence, you get one button to open a dialogue with ChatGPT and another to snap a photo to search from. They’re fine, but they show signs that Visual Intelligence is still a work in progress. Conversely, Google has controls to use either Google Translate or search for music, similar to a manual Now Playing trigger. If that’s not enough, you can tap on the search box and let Google use your entire display to hunt for results, which works better if you’re trying to track down that perfect view you found in a downloaded wallpaper — maybe from one of our Wallpaper Wednesday roundups. Anyway, let’s get to how these two tools actually perform. Google’s tool makes better use of, well, Google Ryan Haines / Android Authority I jumped into my testing of Circle to Search and Visual Intelligence with high hopes. I already knew that Circle to Search could do a lot, and I figured Apple had probably picked up a new trick or two in iOS 26. So, I kept an eye on a few everyday scenarios where I might need to look something up, and then I put each one to the test — twice. Each time, I started with Visual Intelligence as the new competitor hoping to win me over. Up first, an easy one: A chance to teach me about a running shoe I’ve already worn. I opened up a written review and triggered Visual Intelligence via the usual screenshot gesture (a squeeze of the power and volume up buttons). It quickly opened a page of similar images and a few links on the right side. Unfortunately, it listed an incorrect — but visually similar — shoe ahead of the one I requested. Visual Intelligence can match pictures... but so can my nephew, Danny. On the other hand, Circle to Search gave me one link at the top of the page of similar-looking shoes, and this time it was the right one. Between the simple gesture of pressing the navigation pill and only having to tap the shoe to search for it, Google’s tool is off to a bright start. But, like I said, this was an easy start, so let’s get a little tougher. I then shifted to looking for some semi-formal wedding inspiration ahead of a celebration in Philly in a few weeks. I opened an article that I figured would show me some suits, found the first image, and decided to look for the menswear depicted there. This time, both assistants gave me identical results, pulling up similar suits with prices from all across the internet — still no daylight to separate them. But when I jumped over to Instagram to browse a few new turf soccer cleats, Circle to Search finally flexed its muscles. I opened a still image of a studded Nike cleat and pressed for more information ahead of an upcoming turf season. Google’s tool not only told me what shoe I was looking at — the Phantom 6 Low — but also the technology it uses in both the upper and midsole, and the changes from the previous Phantom model. Visual Intelligence? Well, it showed me more pictures of the same cleat. Circle to Search Visual Intelligence For one more visual-heavy example, I recalled my colleague, Rita, recently hyping up Circle to Search’s extra tools — namely, its ability to find songs. So, I fired up one of my favorite live performances, a clip of Lucy Dacus performing at the National Gallery of Ireland, and asked Visual Intelligence to look it up. To its credit, Apple managed to find more stills from the performance and show them to me, but I felt I already needed to know at least a little about the performance since I was searching based on the image rather than the audio. Circle to Search, on the other hand, has a button specifically for finding music. When I froze Lucy and her guitar under Google’s rainbow-colored interface, all I had to do was press the little music note and wait for Circle to Search to take a listen. It then pulled up results like where I could watch the entire performance, what to expect in terms of songs, and even mentioning her duet with Hozier later in the clip — so much more than Apple ever attempted to give me. Sorry, iPhone fans, but Visual Intelligence isn’t there yet Ryan Haines / Android Authority Like I said, I went into this comparison with a fairly open mind. I wasn’t sure whether Visual Intelligence would be able to keep up with Circle to Search, but I found out pretty quickly. Regarding the basics, Apple Visual Intelligence is there, or mostly there. It can look at a running shoe or a light brown suit and find me other pictures of the same. However, as soon as I ask for more, it stumbles. As soon as I try to search for anything but an image, Visual Intelligence doesn’t know how to respond. As soon as I try to use the extra buttons to either search based on an image or type to ChatGPT, it freezes up and asks me what I’d like to know over and over again. Circle to Search? No such troubles, it answered me correctly with additional information every time. So, despite my highest hopes for Apple’s latest round of AI-powered updates, I’m still not impressed. I want to think that Apple is just a step away from having features on par with its Android rivals, but it’s not. And, until it catches up, I’ll be sticking with the operating system I know and love. Follow