Consider this: You’re a student and have handwritten your class notes. You want to quickly type them for the assignment you prepare. Won’t it be time-saving to just use your phone’s camera, point it at the written text to copy all the text and paste it in one of your devices? There is only one catch—You need to write neatly or else Google Lens’ software will have a hard time figuring out what is written.
Copy-paste the text from paper to your devices using Google Lens
First things first! You need to have the latest version of Google Chrome and both the devices (from which you copy and to which you need to paste) need to be signed into the same Google account. If the above stuff is set-up, we’re good to go:
- Open the Google Lens app and go to Text mode by clicking the icon at the bottom.
- If you need more light, you can click the flash icon in the top-left and then point the camera at your written notes.
- Your text should be highlighted quickly and then click the same Text icon to capture.
- You can tap on the text in the captured photo to select and adjust what text needs to be copied.
- Tap Copy to computer and you would be notified that the text is copied. If you have multiple signed-in devices, you need to choose one from the pop-up.
- You will get a “Text copied from …” notification in the device you selected to paste.
- That’s it! Your written text is copied to your selected device’s clipboard for you to paste anywhere.
Copy-paste the text from your saved photos to other devices using Google Lens
There are situations where you would have your notes saved in the gallery. To copy and paste text from your photos:
- Once you’re in the Google Lens app Text mode, tap the photo icon in the top-right and choose the photo you want.
- Then, you can follow the above steps for copying text to your devices.
You can use this feature for practically any use-cases: It isn’t limited to notes. You can simply fire-up the Google Lens app and point the camera at literally any text. You can also choose Copy text to just save it to your phone. Also, there are several other useful stuff for you to do with Google Lens.
There are a couple of ways you can trigger Google Lens in Android such as using Google Assistant and Google Photos. If you use an iPhone or iPad, you can use Google Lens with Google Photos or the Google app.