Google Photos has long been one of the most useful tools for managing the thousands of images people capture every year. Beyond simple storage and organization, the app has steadily added intelligent features powered by Google’s AI, including the ability to search for text inside photos and extract that text for use elsewhere. Now, according to recent findings from Android Authority, Google is working on a meaningful improvement to how users select and copy text from images. The change aims to make the process faster, more intuitive, and less dependent on launching a separate tool.
How Text Copying Currently Works in Google Photos
At present, Google Photos already offers solid optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities through its integration with Google Lens. When the app detects text in an image — whether it is a screenshot, a photo of a document, a street sign, a whiteboard, or a menu — users have a couple of ways to access it.
One common method is to open the photo and swipe upward to reveal the details panel. From there, an option appears that lets you copy the text, which then hands the task over to Google Lens. Another route is to tap the three-dot menu and launch Lens directly. Once Lens is active, the text is highlighted, and users can select all of it or specific portions before copying it to the clipboard.
These methods work reliably for many people, but they are not the most seamless. Opening a secondary interface or navigating through menus adds friction, especially when the goal is simply to grab a phone number, an address, a recipe step, or a quote from a photo. In a world where smartphones are used constantly for capturing information on the go, even small delays can feel unnecessary.
The New Text Selection Tool Under Development
In version 7.84 of the Google Photos Android app, researchers uncovered code pointing to a more direct approach. When the app detects text in a picture, a new icon is expected to appear in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Tapping this icon will trigger a scan of the image, highlight the recognized text, and present a clear “Copy All” button at the bottom.
Users will also be able to long-press on the highlighted text to select only the specific words or lines they need. This design feels closer to the native text selection experience people already enjoy in messaging apps, web browsers, and document editors. Instead of routing the request through Google Lens every time, the feature appears to be built more directly into the Photos viewing experience.
The improvement is particularly useful for everyday scenarios. Imagine photographing a restaurant menu and wanting to share only the description of a dish, or capturing a slide from a presentation and extracting a key statistic. Screenshots of conversations, boarding passes, product labels, and handwritten notes could all become easier to turn into usable digital text. For students, professionals, and anyone who frequently photographs information rather than typing it, the time savings add up.
Expanding the Material 3 Expressive Design
Alongside the text-copying upgrade, Google is continuing its visual refresh of the Photos app. The company has been rolling out Material 3 Expressive design elements across Android, a style that emphasizes more personality, rounded containers, and clearer visual hierarchy.
Earlier this year, the Backup page in Google Photos received the Expressive treatment. Now, the Settings and Preferences sections appear to be next. In the updated design, individual options sit inside distinct containers, making the pages easier to scan and giving the interface a more modern, polished appearance. Other areas of the app — including Sharing, Apps & devices, and Notifications — still use the older layout for the time being. Google will likely expand the redesign further in future updates.
While visual changes may seem secondary to functional improvements, they contribute to the overall feeling of polish. Consistent design language helps users navigate the app more confidently and signals that Google continues to invest in the product beyond core storage features.
Broader Context: Why Better OCR Matters
Text extraction from images has become a quiet but essential smartphone capability. Apple’s Live Text, available on recent iPhones and iPads, allows users to interact with text in photos almost instantly. Microsoft has added similar tools in its Photos app and Phone Link software. Google has competed in this space for years through Lens, but integrating the capability more deeply into Photos reduces the need for users to think about which tool to open.
As AI models improve, OCR accuracy continues to rise even with challenging images — angled text, low lighting, stylized fonts, or handwriting. Google’s underlying technology already performs well across many languages and scripts. Making that technology more accessible inside the app most people already use for their photos is a logical next step.
The feature also fits into a larger trend of reducing friction in mobile workflows. Modern users expect their phones to turn captured information into something immediately usable. Whether that means pasting a phone number into a messaging app, searching for a product name, translating a foreign sign, or saving a recipe, the fewer taps required, the better.
Important Caveats About APK Teardowns
It is worth noting that these findings come from an APK teardown — an analysis of the app’s code before the features are fully activated for the public. Google frequently tests ideas that later change, get delayed, or never ship in the form originally discovered. The presence of code for a new text selection button and updated Settings pages strongly suggests active development, but the final implementation, timeline, and exact behavior could still evolve.
Users should not expect the new text tool to appear overnight. Google typically rolls out Photos updates gradually across devices and regions. Once the feature does arrive, it will likely start with a limited group of users before expanding more widely.
What Users Can Do in the Meantime
Until the improved text selection tool becomes available, the existing methods remain effective. Opening an image and using the Lens icon or the details panel still allows reliable text extraction on both Android and the web version of Google Photos. On Pixel phones and some other Android devices, system-level tools such as Circle to Search or the Recents menu selection feature can also pull text from images without opening Photos at all.
Keeping the Google Photos app updated ensures that users receive new features as soon as they begin rolling out. For those who frequently work with text-heavy images, exploring complementary tools such as Google Keep’s OCR capabilities or dedicated document scanning apps can also fill temporary gaps.
The upcoming changes to Google Photos reflect a steady refinement of everyday utility rather than a flashy overhaul. By making text selection more direct and expanding the modern design language, Google is addressing small but frequent points of friction. For a product used by hundreds of millions of people, even modest improvements in speed and usability can have a wide impact.
If the new text-copying method ships as currently indicated, capturing information with a phone camera and turning it into editable text will feel more natural than ever. Combined with ongoing AI advances in recognition accuracy, the feature has the potential to make Google Photos an even stronger everyday productivity tool — one that does more than just store memories and instead helps users act on the information those photos contain.
As with most Google app developments, the true test will come when the update reaches regular users. Until then, the discovery offers a clear signal that the Photos team continues to focus on practical improvements that make the app more useful in daily life.
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