Gboard, Google’s keyboard application for smartphones, is getting a crucial new feature that will make it easier to insert text using your smartphone’s camera. The most recent version of the keyboard app now supports a new “Scan Text” mode, which uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology to identify and enter text into a text field. A similar feature for scanning and inserting text is also available on iPhones running iOS 15.4 or later.
Mishaal Rahman provided an image of the new Gboard function on X (previously Twitter), demonstrating how it works. Google’s keyboard app utilises your smartphone’s rear camera to capture an image of text — which can be a document, a screen, or an object containing words — and then uses OCR technology to extract the text and paste it into your current app.
Gboard is rolling out a new “Scan Text” mode that lets you take a photo of text to insert into a text field. Have heard from several people that this is now rolling out, but it may not have reached everyone yet. Let me know if you see this! pic.twitter.com/7fcs5vEpGT
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) February 22, 2024
To enable the feature, upgrade your Android phone’s Gboard app to version 13.9, which is presently in beta. According to Rahman, users report that the function is currently rolling out, although LoudFact team members were unable to test it on multiple Android smartphones, so you may have to wait till the company officially announces it.
When the Scan Text option becomes accessible on your smartphone, it should appear alongside other capabilities like as Translate, Sticker, One-handed, and Theme. The keyboard will ask you to enable it access to the camera before you can utilise the feature.
Once the text is in the half-screen viewfinder, put your phone’s camera at it and hit the capture button. You can then select the text detected by OCR and insert it into your current app; the image is deleted after the text is inserted. If you want to use it frequently, you can drag it to the toolbar that displays on top of the keyboard.
Also Read:
- How To Scan Document On iPhone Or iPad Via The Notes App
- How To Fix ‘Page Fault In NonPaged Area’ Error In Windows 10
The functionality arrives on Android two years after Apple introduced a similar tool in iOS 15.4, which allows users to point their phone at text and add it to the Notes app and text fields in other apps. It allows users to automatically choose text using their iPhone camera without producing an image, and it displays the text to be entered in real-time.
If the capability has not yet been activated on your smartphone, you can still use the Google Lens app to extract text and copy and paste it into another app. Adding the feature to Gboard will make this procedure easier by eliminating the requirement to use the Lens app.
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