Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google has rolled out an update for the Magnifier app.
- The update adds live text search capability to the viewfinder.
- The update has not been widely rolled out yet.
If you didn’t know, Google has a dedicated app for zooming in on images called Magnifier. You can also use this app to scan for and quickly find certain words in an image. This software has just received a Play Store update that makes it even more useful.
In the current version of Magnifier, you’ll see buttons for switching cameras, enabling flash, zooming out, capturing, zooming in, settings, reset zoom, and saved images. Google is now rolling out an update that makes a minor but handy change to this layout. Spotted by 9to5Google, the latest version of Magnifier (2.0.0.745828117) replaces reset zoom with a button for live text search.
Text search is a feature that was added to the app back in August. This feature allows the user to quickly find a word hiding in an image by typing that word into the search field. However, the button for this feature only appears after you take an image.
In this latest update, however, you can now find the text search button, which appears as a magnifying glass icon, immediately in the viewfinder. Since you no longer have to capture an image to use text search, you can use the feature live. Simply enter the word you want to find, then move your camera around. If a match is found, your phone will vibrate and the word will be highlighted.
If you’re not seeing the new button yet, don’t worry. Although the update is starting to roll out, it hasn’t been released widely quite yet.
