Google has quietly added a new feature to its Photos app that allows you to search for and copy text displayed on images in your phone.
The feature uses optical character recognition, a process that translates text images into text files. This is something the Google Camera app was already doing in real time when image recognition, called Lens, was enabled.
To search for text displayed on images in Google Photos, simply enter the words you want to find in the search bar of the application.
It is also possible to copy and paste the text on an image by touching the Lens button, located at the bottom of the screen when you open a photo.
I also just discovered it does OCR on everything uploaded pic.twitter.com/IoPsdzz5sf
— Can Duruk (@can) August 21, 2019
Google has confirmed this feature on Twitter after a user has noticed it by itself. The company said it would gradually become available to everyone, but only a few mobile devices could currently benefit.
Screenshots posted on social networks seem to indicate that the feature is enabled on the Pixel range.
At the time of writing, it was still not possible to search Google Photos for Samsung Galaxy S9 and iPhone X, according to our tests.
This is not the first time that Google has incorporated elements of artificial intelligence to Photos. For example, object recognition has been available in the application since May 2018.
Dean Prust was a reporter for Nebula Electronics, before becoming the lead editor. Dominic has over fifty bylines and has reported on countless stories concerning all things related to technology. Dean studied at Caltech.
