Google's search circle is a popular Android feature because it can intuitively find objects in images. Over the past few months, the tool has become ubiquitous, even spawning imitators on iOS. Now there's new evidence that Circle to Search is about to see another major update that will introduce new support for audio input and improve the user experience on Pixel tablets.

Starting with the former, the Android authority dug deep into a recent beta version of the Google app, where they discovered a string of code that references an "audio search button." The release caused the button to appear in the feature's UI. It has a round shape and has an illustration of musical notes on it. Pressing the button does nothing, but according to reports it lacks all functionality.

But they wondered what it could do. Their best guess is that Audio Search will be able to "identify sound and music playback on smartphones." It can also use sound to provide additional context for search. The button seems to be sitting on the right side of the microphone icon in the Google search field as a separate device.