Google is adding a new built-in tool to Gboard for Android that lets you “Scan Text” using optical character recognition (OCR).
About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.
Appearing alongside Translate and Proofread, Scan Text requires that you first grant Gboard the camera permission. This opens a viewfinder square that takes up the bottom half of your screen. You “Take a photo of words to scan” with the capture button.
Afterward, Gboard will highlight the text that it sees in the photo. Tapping highlights an entire line, but you can adjust it. This brings up a bottom sheet with an “Insert” button with your cursor position preserved.
After you insert something, the Scan Text tool remains on the screen for you to quickly make another selection.
The functionality is quite straightforward and should be faster than opening Google Lens, especially if you move Scan Text to the shortcuts row while preserving context. However, it might be distracting to basically split screen a viewfinder and another app. There are some advantages to using a fullscreen UI, while this workflow doesn’t save the image.
From our initial usage, OCR quality and accuracy appear unchanged from other Google products. We’ve enabled it with the latest beta version (13.6) of Gboard for Android. Scan Text has otherwise not yet rolled out.
Thanks to JEB Decompiler, from which some APK Insight teardowns benefit.
Dylan Roussel contributed to this article.
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