If you’ve ever wanted to copy and paste between applications in Android do we have an app for you! Copy Text allows you to copy any text on your screen, regardless of its format. The app copies the text to your clipboard and lets you paste it to any other application on your phone. You can even copy text on images with writing but the image has to be pretty high, which is made clear in the description.
A handy feature in the app is that you can get rid of the notification and set the copying box to show upon shaking the device. There’s also a network option that seems to make the service better.
The copy and paste accuracy seems to be around 95% so using the networked connection is the optimal choice. The biggest issue with this app is the installation process. It requires that you download the app on to your computer, Windows or Mac.
There is one downside to this solution, though. The installation and first-time setup are a bit inconvenient. This app does not require root, and it can be installed in any device (except Honeycomb tablets). But it does require downloading a program onto your Windows or Mac computer. After getting the .zip file from the developer’s site, you have to follow a process that requires a couple reboots and plugging your device in to your computer. Once you download the zip file and follow the installation process things seem to work smoothly. If you’re wondering why it can’t be down only on your phone, they offer an interesting explanation.
Copy Text works by first taking a screenshot of your screen, then running an OCR engine (optical character recognition) on the section of the screen that you would like copied. As you know, screenshots are not easy to do on an unrooted Android phone. The only way screenshots can be taken on unrooted phones is through adb. The desktop application essentially enables your phone to take screenshots in the same manner.
Edward KimCopy Text Developer
The issue with the process is that this app may open a port in your device, which could be used by others to create an app and get access to it (with malicious intents). Though this particular app and developer are trusted by the community it could put your phone at risk in the future.
The app is available on Marketplace for $5.99 but the installation process might take you longer then 15 minutes. What do you think? Is the ability to copy and paste between applications worth the money and the risk?
