It’s now possible to search for text displayed on your images in Google Photos

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.

https://twitter.com/can/status/1164040505333731328

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.

Dan Carter
Dan Carter was a reporter for Nomad Labs, before becoming the lead editor. Dan has over forty bylines and has reported on countless stories concerning all things related to tech and science.  Dan studied at CSUF.