Microsoft Adds OCR, AI Features, and Visual Search to Photos App in Windows 10 and Windows 11.
The Microsoft Photos app is receiving an update that adds Optical Character Recognition (OCR), AI editing, and visual search. Users can edit photos using AI and organize them based on subcategories. Furthermore, the new OCR update allows users to extract text from an image. The new features are being gradually rolled out to Windows Insiders on Windows 11 and Windows 10.
Searching with OCR
With the update, Microsoft introduces OCR in the Photos app, allowing users to extract text from images. The feature supports more than 160 languages. A new feature is that users can now directly search the web for selected text via a new button in the interface. This makes it easier to further research information from documents, notes, or screenshots online.
Additionally, Microsoft is adding shortcuts to File Explorer and the desktop. Users can quickly access features such as AI editing with Microsoft Designer or visual search with Bing via the context menu of an image. There are also buttons to remove unwanted objects or adjust the composition of an image. These features are available without opening the Photos app.
Editing Photos with Copilot
Users can now view all images and videos from subfolders within the gallery view of the Photos app. This improvement should simplify navigating and managing media files.
Finally, a Copilot button is being added to the top of the Photo viewer. This provides AI support for editing photos, giving framing tips, and providing visual insights. The feature will be rolled out in a subsequent phase.
Furthermore, the Photos app now also supports the JXL file format. Microsoft reports that some bug fixes have been implemented regarding loading and saving generated images via Image Creator on Copilot+ PCs. Users can download version 2025.11030.20006.0 or higher from the Microsoft Store to access the new features.