Subj : Windows 11 and Android users will finally get a feature iPhone us
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Tue May 28 2024 15:15:05

Windows 11 and Android users will finally get a feature iPhone users have had 
for ages  the easy copying of text from phone photos over to a PC

Date:
Tue, 28 May 2024 13:58:32 +0000

Description:
Windows Phone Link may get a new feature thatll make it easier to select and 
copy the text from photos on your phone.

FULL STORY
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A Microsoft Phone Link update may be in the works to make exchanging text 
between your phone and your PC a lot easier. In short, youll be able to 
select text in photos synced from your Android phone. 

 Phone Link is an app on your PC (also called Link to Windows on your phone) 
that allows you to sync your calls, messages, notifications, and images from 
your Android device onto your PC. Its similar to how youre able to sync much 
of your iPhone and its apps to your MacBook, so you can respond to messages 
and access photos you might need without having to pick up your phone. 

The feature will use optical character recognition (OCR) to spot text within 
images and highlight them, so youll be able to copy the text over to a word 
processor, email, or text box. This is great news for those of us who hate 
having to type out important details and are looking for a simpler procedure. 
Unfortunately, the feature is currently only available through Microsofts 
preview channel. 

 Windows Central gave the new feature a go and showcased a simple layout 
within Phone Link that highlights all the available text in the image, with 
the option to copy the text to your clipboard in Windows. If you feel like 
this all sounds familiar, you may remember Microsoft actually started testing 
this feature out in the Snipping Tool, where your transferred photo would 
open in the app rather than with Phone Link. Welcome to the club 

Apple users like myself may be tempted to turn their noses up at an update 
like this, but overall its still a beneficial change that Im sure will 
benefit a lot of people. However, from what we can tell the OCR isnt 100% 
accurate, so you will have to double-check the pasted text before you send it 
off. 

If youre just looking to paste written notes or basic information, the new 
feature will probably work just fine for you, however, if you want to paste 
over longer or more important blocks of text, using cross-device copy and 
paste may be better (assuming the text isnt solely confined to an image 
file). 

So far, the feature is still locked behind the Windows Insider Preview Build, 
Microsofts hub for testing potential new features and changes. While we 
normally say that we have to take the Preview Build changes with a pinch of 
salt (not all features make a wide release) were fairly confident that this 
Phone Link update will come to fruition. 

If you want to try it out yourself, youll have to make sure youre part of the 
Insider Preview Build channel (which is free to join), where youll be able to 
not only play around with the new Phone Link update but also see other 
features Microsoft has in the works. You might also like... Microsoft's AI 
Copilot is coming to your messaging apps, starting with Telegram Microsofts 
trick for speeding up PC games in Windows 11 works with only 12 games to 
start with  but far more are actually supported Windows 11s Recall feature is 
already running on unsupported CPUs  and it shows why this is a bad idea



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Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/windows-11-and-android-users-will-
finally-get-a-feature-iphone-users-have-had-for-ages-the-easy-copying-of-text-
from-phone-photos-over-to-a-pc


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