Microsoft’s Phone Link app will soon allow users to select and copy text in images on Android phones.
Spotted by The Verge, the new feature is in testing now in ‘Release Preview Insider’ builds of Windows and could roll out to everyone in the near future.
Phone Link leverages optical character recognition (OCR) technology to detect text in images, which The Verge says is “decent” but more prone to errors than Samsung’s or Apple’s text extraction.
Notably, Windows 11’s ‘Snipping Tool’ recently got text extraction capabilities for images. That enabled a bit of a workaround for copying text from images captured on a smartphone, but the built-in capability in Phone Link streamlines the process.
Microsoft seems to be on a bit of an OCR kick. The company’s recently announced ‘Recall’ feature relies on OCR capabilities to help people look up things in screenshots of their PC activity.
Phone Link is a service that syncs various aspects of users’ smartphones with their Windows PCs. That includes calls, messages, notifications, images and more. However, most of the features are limited to Android phones, though some things still work with iOS.
Phone Link and its smartphone companion app, Link to Windows, are available for free on their respective platforms.
Distributed also on: The Verge
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