Have you ever found yourself scrolling through a web page or document, wishing there was a quick way to extract text? Well, Samsung's Smart Select tool has you covered.

Smart Select is a cool addition to your Samsung Galaxy device. It lets you capture, edit, and share content in a variety of ways. Here, we'll show you some of its best features that you can put to good use.

How to Access Smart Select on Your Samsung Galaxy

Smart Select is a convenient screen capture and selection tool to have at your disposal, no matter whether you're using it in a personal or work setting.

To use the tool, you'll need to set up the Edge Panels feature, and then add the Smart Select option. To do this, tap on Edge panels > Panels, and then tap Smart select.

You can then open it by swiping in from the edge of your screen at any time.

If your Galaxy device comes with a supported S Pen, you can use the Air Command capabilities to access Smart Select's advanced editing options. You can also use these helpful apps to make the most of your S Pen.

1. Screen Capture: Take Screenshots of Your Notes or Images

The Smart Select feature allows you to capture your screen, and save them to your gallery. With the help of this tool, you can easily create and share content on your social media apps, or elsewhere.

To capture your screen using Smart Select, follow the steps listed below:

  1. On your device, pull up the edge panel from the right or left side of your screen, and tap on Rectangular or Oval.
  2. Once you've selected the shape, you can crop or resize your image. Hold and drag the corners of the tool to select the area for your screenshot. Tap Done.
  3. You'll be able to view a selection of tools in the bottom menu. Tap on the down arrow icon to save the image to your Gallery app.

2. Text Selection & OCR: Extract Text From Images

Smart Select is a handy text-selection tool that works just like other OCR apps to extract text from images (such as a web article or a business card), with just a few taps. It is super easy to use and can save you time. Here's how this works:

  1. On your device, pull up the edge panel.
  2. Select Rectangular/Oval. Once the whole area gets selected, drag the corners to adjust the dimensions of your image area to include just the text you want to extract. Tap Done.
  3. Once the photo editor comes up, tap on the T icon in the toolbar.
  4. You'll get a pop-up screen with the extracted text. Select the entire text or specific portions, as you wish.
  5. Tap Copy or Share to save the information to an app of your choice.

3. Animation Features: Create GIFs on Your Phone

The tool also lets you capture a short clip from any video playing on your Galaxy device, and then convert it into a GIF file that can be shared anywhere. You can create a GIF of up to fifteen seconds in length, and save it in either high quality or standard quality. Here's how to do this:

  1. Start by selecting a video—via YouTube, or a link in your mobile browser.
  2. Pull up the edge panel and select Animation, then position the box that appears to cover the part of the screen you want to record.
  3. Tap the Record button at the bottom of your screen to start capturing your favorite portion of the video.
  4. Tap Stop when done.
  5. Next, tap the down arrow icon to save it directly to the Gallery app.

4. Annotation Tools: Highlight or Draw On Images or Text

You can use Smart Select to simply draw on your image files, or highlight important parts within an article as you like. All you need to do is capture an image and then tap on the pencil icon to bring up a selection of annotation tools.

Choose from various sizes and colors for text. When you're done making annotations on your images, tap Done to save your images to the Gallery app.

5. Quick Access: Pin a Screenshot to Your Device's Home Screen

If you need to quickly bookmark a particular section of a web page or a current location on a map, the Smart Select tool can help.

It lets you capture parts of documents, images, or web pages, and pin them to your device's home screen for easy access. Here's how to do this:

  1. On your device, pull up the Edge panel > Rectangular or Oval, and capture the screenshot of your choice.
  2. Select and crop to the desired dimensions, and tap Done.
  3. On the top of the screenshot, tap Pin/Insert at the top of the screenshot to pin it to the home screen.

With photo editing tools available in abundance, it's fairly easy to add a dash of creativity to your images. Even with Smart Select's basic cropping and drawing tools, you can customize your pictures the way you like. For instance, you can even create a beautiful collage once you've captured and edited your images and saved them to your gallery.

Use S Pen Actions for Advanced Smart Select Functions

Smart Select is also designed to help you quickly highlight or draw on images or text with your Samsung S Pen. The S Pen comes included with Samsung flagship devices such as the Galaxy Z Fold4, the Note series, Tab S8, S21 Ultra, and S22 Ultra.

You can access the Smart Select features by tapping the Air Command icon in the right-hand corner of the screen. A menu will appear with a list of advanced options for selecting text or drawing on your screen. Here's a quick tutorial to access and use the tool with your S Pen:

Smart Select: Capture, Edit, and Share Your Images Easily

If you have a Galaxy device, you should definitely give Smart Select a try the next time you're looking for an easy-to-use screen capture tool. While the Smart Select tool is far from perfect, it's certainly nice to know that it can come in handy in a pinch.

And it's just one of many ways you can use edge panels to add functionality to your Samsung phone and help make it easier to use.