Microsoft is bringing ‘OCR’ text recognition to Windows 11’s Snipping Tool

Snipping Tool gets smarter with its latest update.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

What you need to know

Microsoft hasannounced new updates for the Snipping Tool and Phone Link apps onWindows 11that are rolling out now in preview for Windows Insiders. The updates bring new functionality, including optical character recognition (OCR) technology in the Snipping Tool.

OCR technology enables the Snipping Tool to recognize text in screenshots, and makes it super easy to copy and paste that text elsewhere. This is helpful in scenarios where you might be screenshotting an image with text in it, such as a road sign or identification that you need to copy information from.

The app is also gaining the ability to quickly redact certain parts of a screenshot, which will be handy for when you need to hide certain bits of information from an image.

Additionally, the Phone Link app is being updated to push a notification whenever you take a new photo, providing a super quick way of jumping in and editing that photo on your Windows PC using the Phone Link app.

As mentioned, these new features are rolling out now in preview for Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels, and will most likely roll out to everyone in the coming weeks.

Get the Windows Central Newsletter

All the latest news, reviews, and guides for Windows and Xbox diehards.

Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. Also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch onTwitterandThreads