Microsoft has recently rolled out a new feature in its Phone Link app that allows users to select and copy text from images synced from their Android phones. This feature, which is currently available in the Release Preview Insider builds, is set to be released to all users in the near future.
How Phone Link Works
Phone Link, also known as Link to Windows on the phone side, enables users to sync calls, messages, notifications, and images from their Android phones to their Windows computers. Additionally, users can cast their entire phone screen to their computer. While Phone Link also offers limited functionality with iOS devices, only syncing notifications, messages, and calls over Bluetooth.
The addition of text extraction from images in the Phone Link app enhances user efficiency by eliminating the need to use an external tool, such as the Windows Snipping Tool, for text extraction. Users can now extract text directly within the app, streamlining the process of transferring text from phone photos to their computers.
In a quick test conducted by a tech expert, the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) performance of the text extraction feature in Phone Link was found to be decent. However, it was noted that the OCR made more errors compared to text extractors from Samsung and Apple when extracting text from the same image of a book page. For longer passages, users may find it more efficient to enable cross-device copy and paste, extract the text on their phone, and send it to their PC.
While the text extraction feature in Microsoft Phone Link provides a convenient way to extract text from images synced from Android phones, users may experience some limitations in accuracy compared to other text extractors on the market. As technology continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how Microsoft further refines this feature to improve the overall user experience.
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