SnapVerbo app icon SnapVerbo
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Selecting text in your photo

After you capture a photo, SnapVerbo shows you the text it recognised, with each word as its own selectable region. There are four ways to select what you want — pick whichever fits the moment.

1. Tap a single word (default)

The default behaviour. Just tap any word on the image. The translation appears in a chip near the word.

This is the right mode for looking up one new word at a time.

2. Line mode — tap to grab the whole line

Useful when you want to capture a phrase or short sentence that already sits on one line (e.g. a dish name on a menu, a sign caption).

  1. In the AppBar at the top, tap the Line mode toggle (the icon with stacked horizontal lines). The button highlights — the tooltip reads “Line mode: On”.
  2. Now tap any word. SnapVerbo selects the whole line around that word and translates the entire line.
  3. Tap the toggle again to turn it off.

3. Swipe mode — drag across multiple words

Best for picking out a custom phrase or part of a sentence — words that don’t sit neatly on one line.

  1. In the AppBar, tap the Swipe toggle (the touch-finger icon). The button highlights — the tooltip reads “Swipe: On (swipe to select)”.
  2. With one finger, drag across the words you want. Each word your finger touches gets added to the selection.
  3. Lift your finger. The translation chip shows the combined phrase.
  4. Tap the toggle again to turn it off.

Line mode and Swipe mode are mutually exclusive — turning one on turns the other off.

4. Drag a box — long-press to capture a region

Best for a paragraph, a quote, or a non-rectangular block of text where tapping word-by-word would be tedious.

  1. Long-press anywhere on the image. The box selection mode activates immediately.
  2. Without lifting, drag to size the rectangle around the text you want.
  3. Lift your finger. SnapVerbo collects every word inside the box and translates the combined text.

You don’t need to toggle anything in the AppBar — long-press is the gesture.

Once you’ve made a selection

  • Tap the Save to vocabulary icon (bookmark) on the chip to save the selection as an entry.
  • Tap the speaker icon to hear the original text read aloud.
  • Tap a different word (or somewhere outside) to clear the selection and start over.