Text selection used to be frustrating on mobile for me too until Google fixed it with OCR. I get to just hold a button briefly and then can immediately select an area of the screen to scan text from, with a consistent UX. Like a screenshot but for text.

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bathtub365 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Does it automatically scroll down while selecting if the text is larger than the screen?

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taskforcegemini 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They are using OCR for selecting plain text?

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aoeusnth1 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's possible to use the Gemini "ask me about this screen" to OCR the selected area of the screenshot. I guess that might be more efficient in some contexts then trying to use the native text select.

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eastbound 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

On iPhone too, taking a screenshot is the single reliable way to select text.

	▲	throwaway894345 19 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		It becomes possible. Getting the handles to move correctly is still often a frustrating experience.

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AlienRobot 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

At least it's not AI... yet.

	▲	xnx 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Multi-modal LLMs like Gemini are better than traditional OCR in most ways.

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clearleaf 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is such an indictment of modern technology. No offense is meant to you for doing what works for you, but it is buck wild that this is the "fix" they've come up with. As somebody learning about this for the first time it sounds equivalent to a world where screenshotting became really hard so people started taking photos of their screen so they could screenshot the photo. How could such a fundamental aspect of using a computer become so ridiculous? It's like satire.

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supportengineer 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That’s how I do it on the iPhone as well. I take a screen shot first.

You can count on it, it is reliable, it always works.

	▲	throwaway894345 18 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Unless you need to select more text than fits on the screen