Use Google Photos to identify, translate and use text on photos
Google Photos is probably not the most loved application for viewing, editing and managing photos on Android devices. The app is available on many different devices, and while its functionality differs, as Google is reserving some features to its Pixel lineup, it is offering some interesting features.
When you open a photo with text, you should see an option called "copy text from image". It looks like your typical OCR feature on first glance, but when you use it, you will quickly realize that it offers more than that. Apart from providing you with text, it supports running searches and translating the text.
Since that is a useful feature sometimes, it is worth taking a closer look at how this works. In this guide, I'll walk you through the main options that Google Photos provides. A Pixel 3a was used for the guide, and I checked my wife's Moto device which had the Photos app and the feature as well.
To get started, open a photo with text or take a photo with text on your Android device. The Google Photos application should identify text on photos automatically and display the "copy text from image" option. Actually, the service is powered by Google Lens but the feature is integrated in the Google Photos app.
Note: The functionality requires an active Internet connection; users who are privacy conscious may not want to use it because of that.
Tap on the option to get started. Google Photos may select part of the text only, but you can move the opening and end icons around on the screen to make sure that the right text is selected. You may also use the icon on the right to draw a rectangle on the screen to have all text inside included, or tap on "select all" afterwards to have all text selected.
The first couple of words of the text and some options are displayed on the screen once text is selected. You can copy the text, run a search using it, listen to it, or have it translated.
A tap on the icon on the left (with the three horizontal bars that get smaller) displays a menu bar with additional options. You may use it to look up a place, select a restaurant, or search for the selected item online.
Not all options may be useful to you. Translate can be very useful, especially if you are in a foreign country and need some guidance, e.g. when you need instructions translated, think Japanese toilets or safety instructions. The option to look up places may be useful as well, as you can look up addresses on flyers, business cards, or magazines.
Text copying itself may also be useful, e.g. to copy text quickly while in class, to copy account information to make transfers, or to copy information for safekeeping.
Closing Words
The text identification option of Google Photos is a useful feature for Android users, as it can be used for a wide range of purposes.
Now You: have you used OCR software / apps in the past?
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?