According to a report, Microsoft Phone Link is set to bring text copying capabilities to Windows 11. The mobile pairing app pre-installed in Windows 11 allows users to connect their smartphones (both Android and iOS) to a PC, sync text messages and images, and allow them to make and receive calls. According to a report, the Phone Link app for Windows will soon be updated with a new optical character recognition (OCR) feature that will allow users to copy text from images.
Phone Link app to add text recognition support
Several Microsoft applications, such as Lens and Office, already have OCR capabilities. Last year, the Snippet tool in Windows 10 and 11 also got this feature, making it easier to copy text from screenshots. Windows Central reports that OCR support will soon be coming to Phone Link.
This feature was spotted in the latest version of the Phone Link app 1.24051.91.0 on the Release Preview Channel, which is available through the Windows Insider program. However, according to the publication, it is not yet available to the public, but may be rolled out to all Windows users in the future.
Phone link text recognition: how it works
When the image is opened in the Photos section of Phone Link, a new icon appears text according to the report. Once clicked, it will automatically scan the image to detect the text in the image and then two options will appear – select all text or copy all text. Users can copy the selection to the clipboard and paste elsewhere.
Advanced AI-powered insertion in Windows
Microsoft is also reportedly testing a more advanced version of the pasting that appears to be powered by artificial intelligence (AI). According to the Microsoft Learn blog, the new Advanced Paste feature is available through PowerToys version 0.81.0. It can be accessed by pressing Windows + Shift + V.
Users can then choose from 3 paste options from the clipboard – plain text, JSON and markup, all of which can be accessed via hotkeys. It also gets another option called Insert with AI which uses OpenAI technology that allows users to generalize text, translate and stylize it, and even generate code.
