Scanner (OCR, QR, documents)

Three camera-driven tools live under one Scanners group: Text scan (OCR) reads printed words into your field, QR & barcode scanner decodes a code and inserts (or opens) its value, and Document scanner captures a paper document as a cropped, cleaned-up image. Full edition only: all three run on Google ML Kit and only ship in the full build.

Screenshot pending

Text scan (OCR): a full-bleed camera view with recognized words ready to tap.

Scanning text (OCR)

Open Text scan (OCR) from the toolbar or toolbox to replace the keyboard with a full-bleed camera view, which covers the toolbar row too, not just the key area. Point it at printed text and it recognizes words on-device; a torch toggle appears if your device has a flash. Recognition reads Latin-script text (English and similar scripts); ML Kit’s on-device text recognizer doesn’t support Bengali yet.

After a capture, the recognized words appear as tappable chips grouped by line:

Screenshot pending

OCR result: recognized words as chips, grouped by line, ready to copy or insert.

• With Start with everything selected on (the default), every word starts selected and tapping a chip deselects it, so you can trim the capture down to what you need. Turn it off and chips start empty, so you tap to pick words one at a time instead.
• Copy and Insert act on whatever’s currently selected.
• Scan again discards the capture and returns to the viewfinder; a select-all/deselect-all toggle flips every chip at once.

If your device has no camera, the panel shows a message instead of a blank viewfinder.

Scanning QR codes and barcodes

QR & barcode scanner is also full-bleed and decodes continuously as you point the camera, with no shutter tap needed. It reads QR codes plus the common barcode formats: Aztec, Codabar, Code 39/93/128, Data Matrix, EAN-8/13, ITF, PDF417, and UPC-A/E, labeled by format in the result.

Screenshot pending

QR & barcode scanner: live camera view with pinch-to-zoom, freezing on the first code it decodes.

The first code it decodes freezes into a result card with Copy, Insert, and Rescan. If the decoded value is a plain URL (https://…, http://…, or www.…), an Open button appears too. Anything else is text only, so a scanned value like a Wi-Fi network payload just inserts as raw text rather than being parsed into a connect action. Pinch to zoom while scanning; a small percentage pill shows above roughly 1.05x zoom. One particular link gets a little extra recognition on the result card — see Easter eggs.

Options

All three scanners have their own settings screen, and all three start with the same header rows before anything tool-specific:

• Enabled — Text scan is in the “recommended” and “show me everything” starter sets that setup lands, so it arrives on unless you picked the simplest answer. QR & barcode and Document scanner are in no starter set at all, so both begin switched off and you turn them on here.
• Icon colour — only shown while colorful tool icons is on globally (it is by default). Text scan is green, QR & barcode teal, Document scanner a light blue.
• Trigger words — under a Keyword shortcut heading: ocr for Text scan, scan for QR & barcode, docscan for Document scanner. Type one of them on its own and the suggestion strip offers to open that tool. Commas separate several words, and an empty field means the tool never offers itself.
• Match capitals — off by default on all three, so a trigger word matches however you capitalise it. Turn it on and only the exact spelling counts.
• Reset to defaults — joins the group once you’ve edited that tool’s trigger words, and puts them back.

WM Keyboard›Tools›QR & barcode scanner›Options

• Insert automatically — off by default. When on, the scanned code’s text types into your field the instant it’s spotted, with no confirm tap.
• Vibrate on detection — on by default. A short buzz when a code is spotted.
• Load link details — off by default. When a scanned value is a web link, fetches the page’s title and description to show above the result (needs a network connection). Power Saving mode force-disables this when its background-network toggle is on.

Decoding for both OCR and the QR/barcode scanner runs entirely on-device with ML Kit, so nothing is uploaded, and both work offline (link previews are the one exception, since fetching a page’s title needs the network). See network policy for what else does and doesn’t touch the network.

WM Keyboard›Tools›Text scan (OCR)›Options

• Start with everything selected — on by default, described above.

Scanning a document

Document scanner hands the whole flow to Google’s own scanner UI: edge detection, cropping, and cleanup happen there, outside the keyboard, since an IME can’t host that kind of full-screen flow itself. Gallery import is allowed alongside the camera, and pages come back as JPEGs.

Screenshot pending

Document scanner: Google's scan UI for capturing and cropping a page.

Once you’re back in your app, each captured page is inserted exactly like a Camera-tool photo, sent to the field one page at a time. If Google Play services or the scanner module isn’t available on your device, you get a toast saying so instead of a crash.

WM Keyboard›Tools›Document scanner›Options

• Save to gallery — off by default. Also keeps scanned pages in the WM Keyboard album under Pictures.

Details & edge cases

• Camera permission works differently across the three tools. OCR and QR/barcode check for camera permission themselves and, if it’s not granted, show an Allow camera prompt that opens a brief system dialog and returns you to the panel. The document scanner doesn’t go through that prompt at all; Google’s scanner activity manages its own camera permission internally.
• None of the three scanners work before you’ve unlocked your device once after a restart (no direct-boot support), unlike some other tools that do work at the lock screen.
• The trigger words in Options are what make a standalone ocr, scan or docscan surface a chip into the matching tool. Smart chips covers that mechanism in full.
• Open any of the three from Settings → Tools → Scanners, or by typing its keyword as described above.

Why full only

OCR and QR/barcode scanning depend on ML Kit’s text-recognition and barcode-scanning libraries; document scanning depends on Google Play services’ document scanner module. All three are compiled into the full build and left out of lite entirely (not just hidden behind a toggle), so the Scanners group doesn’t appear in the lite toolbox or toolbar at all. See Full vs Lite if you’re deciding between builds.