Google Photos photo-sharing app which was launched back in 2015 has been getting new features with updates over the years. Last year, Google rolled out support for Lens in Google Images. Now, with the latest update, Google Photos allows you to search for text in images.
Google Lens supports optical character recognition(OCR) that can pull text from any image. The feature is now being extended to Google Photos and users can search Google Photos library for a text that appears within pictures and screenshots. To recall, Google Photos already recognises objects, events, and people or pets.
You spotted it! Starting this month, we’re rolling out the ability to search your photos by the text in them.
Once you find the photo you’re looking for, click the Lens button to easily copy and paste text. Take that, impossible wifi passwords 😏
— Google Photos (@googlephotos) August 22, 2019
Users can search for a particular text that is present within a picture or a screenshot and Photos will pull relevant images that contain the phrase in it. It performs well even if the text present in the picture is small or if it is at an angle. Once the image is selected, users can click the ‘Lens’ button and even copy and paste the text.
This feature is rolling out now on Google Photos for Android, iOS and web version. In related news, Google recently launched ‘Google Gallery Go’, a new lightweight app that brings many of the best features of Google Photos and organizes photos offline.