Google Lens comes to the desktop web or convenient text copying: Report

SAN FRANCISCO: Google is reportedly now bringing Lens to the desktop web inside Google Photos for convenient text copying through optical character recognition (OCR). Besides being its own app, Google Lens is also available in Image Search, Photos and integrated across Android.

Opening an image with words reveals a "Copy text from image" suggestion chip that features the (old) Lens logo and dismiss button. It appears to the left of Share, Edit, Info and other controls for Google Photos, reports 9To5Google.

The report said that tapping launches Google Lens with the same analysis animation of pulsating dots appearing over the picture for a brief second. "Afterward, all text in an image is selected by default and everything appears in the right panel," it added.

Users can "Deselect text" from the top-right corner to just highlight specific passages and copy with a floating button over the image. OCR is a very convenient Google Lens capability and the only capability live in this web version of Photos, which is widely rolled out today, the report said.

The visual search tool does not currently work to recognise monuments or plants and could help people explore their images and memories. As per the report, this is the first time Lens has expanded beyond mobile.

On Android, it is available when you use Google Image Search, while Chrome mobile lets you hold down on any image for quick analysis.