Mehvish Mushtaq is a computer engineer by degree. Her love for Android and gadgets led her to develop the first Android app for Kashmir. Known as Dial Kashmir, she won the prestigious Nari Shakti award from the President of India. She has been writing about technology for 6+ years and her favorite categories include how-to guides, explainers, tips and tricks for Android, iOS/iPadOS, social media, and web apps. Learn about our Tech Review Board
Updated February 19, 2024Copying text from messages or any other Android app is easy. But many times, we want to extract text from pictures. Thankfully, Samsung One UI offers native methods to select and copy text from a picture. You don’t need to download any third-party OCR app for the same. Let’s check different ways to extract and copy text from images in Samsung Galaxy phones. 
You can use these methods to extract text from documents or pictures in real-time using the Camera app, extract text from a picture or screenshot in Gallery, extract and paste text using the keyboard, or copy unselectable text from apps. 
Tip: Learn how to blur the background or part of a picture on Samsung.
If you want to extract text from a screenshot or picture in Gallery, the Samsung Gallery app offers three ways to extract text from a picture. Let’s check all of them. However, please note that the first two methods will work on Samsung One UI 4.1.1 + only.
Step 1: Open your image with the text in the Samsung Gallery app. Step 2: You will see a yellow T icon at the bottom. Tap on it to let your phone automatically extract and select the text in the picture. Step 3: Tap anywhere on the selected text to show the selection bars that you can use to select the desired text. Then, tap on Copy in the pop-up menu. Tip: Learn how to hide pictures on Samsung
Step 1: In the Samsung Gallery app, open the picture with the text. Step 2: Long-press on the text in the picture to display the selection bars. Drag the selection handles to select the desired text and tap on Copy.
If your phone doesn’t support the above two methods in the Gallery app, you can use Bixby to select and copy text from a picture on Samsung. Follow these steps: Step 1: Go to the picture in the Samsung Gallery app. Step 2: Tap on the Eye (Bixby icon) at the top and go to the Text tab at the bottom. Step 3: The text will be highlighted. Tap on the highlighted text to show the selection handles. Then, adjust the selection per your requirement using the handles. After selecting the desired text, tap on Copy. Tip: Know about other hidden features of Samsung Gallery
Who would have thought you could use your keyboard to extract text from physical documents or pictures in real time? Samsung Keyboard lets you extract text from physical objects and paste them automatically into the open app. For instance, if you have a messaging app open and use the text extract feature of the Samsung keyboard, the text will automatically be pasted into your message. You don’t need to copy it first into a note-taking app and paste it into the Messaging app. Interesting, no? Use these steps to extract text in real-time using the Samsung Keyboard: Step 1: Open an app to paste the text from a picture. It could be Messages, chat apps, or any note-taking app. Step 2: Once the Samsung Keyboard shows up, tap on the T icon in the keyboard’s toolbar. If you don’t see it, tap on the three-dot icon on the keyboard, followed by the T (Extract text) icon. Step 3: The camera viewfinder will show up. Point it toward a picture, banner, or document, and it will automatically extract and paste the text into the app. Or, you can press the Paste button manually. Tip: Know the difference between Gboard and Samsung Keyboard
Smart Select, a feature of Edge Panel, is another hidden feature of Samsung Galaxy phones that you can use to extract and copy text from images. Suppose you found an interesting image on Twitter and want to extract text from it. Typically, you must download the image or take a screenshot and then use Samsung Gallery to extract text. But an easier alternative is to use the Smart Select feature. What makes this interesting is that you can access it from within any app. The only requirement is to enable it first in Edge handles. Here are the step-by-step instructions to use Smart Select to extract text on Samsung Galaxy phones. We have divided the steps into two parts for easier understanding.
Step 1: Open Settings on your phone and go to Display, followed by Edge panels. 
Step 2: Enable the toggle next to Off and tap on Panels. 
Step 3: Look for Smart Select and tap on the selection circle above it to enable it.
Step 1: Open the app with the picture or undetectable text. Look for the Edge handle on your phone. It’s a small handle on the right or left edge of your phone’s screen. Swipe inwards on the handle to open the Edge panel. Step 2: Swipe left multiple times on the panel until you see the Smart Select panel. Here, you will find Rectangle, Oval, Animation, and Pin/Insert options. Step 3: Tap on Rectangle and drag the selection box to your picture or the area containing the text on the screen. Then, tap on Done. 
Step 4: Tap on the T icon at the bottom to highlight the text in the picture. Then, select the desired text using the selection handles and press the Copy button to copy the text. 
Tip: The Smart Select tool can be used to copy text from apps or websites that don’t let you copy text, such as Instagram comments, YouTube, etc. Check out other ways to copy text from Instagram posts.
If none of the above Samsung-specific methods meet your requirements, use Google Lens to extract text from a picture. Google Lens can be accessed from the pre-installed Google app, which is available on all Samsung and other Android phones. Use these steps to extract text from a picture on Samsung phones using Google Lens: Step 1: Open the Google app on your Samsung Galaxy phone. Step 2: Tap on the Camera (Google Lens) icon in the search bar. Step 3: Point the camera toward a picture in real time or select a picture containing the text from your gallery. Step 4: The text in the picture will be highlighted. Drag the selection handle to select the desired text. Lastly, tap on Copy to copy the selected text from the picture. Tip: Know how to use Google Lens to extract text from images in Chrome
If you have the Google Photos app installed on your Samsung Galaxy phone, use it to extract text from a picture, too, as shown below: Step 1: In the Google Photos app, open the picture from which you want to extract the text. Step 2: Tap on the Lens icon at the bottom. Then, tap on the text in the picture to show the selection handles. Use them to select the desired text. Finally, press the Copy button. Tip: Know how to upload photos to Google Photos from any device.
Once you copy text from a picture in Samsung, it will be stored on your Samsung phone’s keyboard. Check out two ways to use clipboard on Samsung. Also, know how to sync the clipboard between Samsung and Windows PC.
