The new version of Microsoft's Phone Link will allow you to select and copy text from images synchronized with your Android smartphone. This feature is already in the Release Preview insider build, so it will soon be available to everyone. This was reported by The Verge.
Phone Link or Link to Windows allows you to synchronize calls, messages, notifications, and images from your Android smartphone to your Windows computer. The program also works with iOS devices, but in a more limited mode. The app only synchronizes notifications, messages, and calls via Bluetooth.
In fact, the Windows Snipping Tool received text recognition last year, around the same time Phone Link received an update with image transfer capability.Therefore, Windows users were able to extract text from their photos back then.
Now, users don't even need to use the Snipping Tool - the update simply saves time and allows them to do it right in the app. The feature is available in Phone Link 1.24051.91.0.
Microsoft's text recognition is reportedly still inferior to text extractors from Samsung or Apple. For longer passages, it's probably better to enable copy and paste between devices, "extract" the text on your smartphone, and send it to your computer.