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Manual scan and bubble

Not every situation needs continuous OCR. The floating bubble gives you a one-off region scan, the menu, and a way to start or stop capture from anywhere.

The bubble

Section titled “The bubble”

The bubble is a small draggable overlay. Drag it away from the text you are reading. Tap it to open the current overlay panel; long-press it for the menu. Bubble tap chooses what a normal tap does:

  • Quick lookup (default) — drag a box around a word, and its lines are laid over the screen so you can tap the word. The first word found is opened immediately.
  • Scan region — the older capture-box workflow.

The menu:

  • Bubble tap: Quick lookup / Scan region
  • Start auto OCR / Stop auto OCR
  • Auto OCR text areas
  • Mine the latest line
  • Show live text window
  • Microphone fallback toggle
  • Scan once: pick a region
  • Scan once: full screen
  • Hide bubble and Stop overlay
  • Restart screen capture (when the captured app closed or consent was revoked)

The foreground-service notification stays available as a shortcut when the bubble is hidden.

Scan once

Section titled “Scan once”
  1. Tap the bubble, or long-press → Scan once: pick a region.
  2. Adjust the capture box over the text. This box is separate from the auto OCR text areas.
  3. Tap Scan region.
  4. Tap a highlighted word for definitions, then Anki.

Manual scans are logged on the Texts tab too, so they get the same sentence, screenshot and audio treatment as auto OCR lines.

When to use it

Section titled “When to use it”
  • A game with a static menu or dialogue that changes only on click.
  • A single sign, tooltip or UI message that auto OCR’s configured areas miss.
  • A quick lookup while auto OCR is stopped.
  • Testing OCR quality before drawing permanent text areas.
Section titled “Screen capture consent”

The first scan asks for Android’s screen-sharing consent. If you close the captured app or revoke sharing, the bubble menu offers Restart screen capture. The consent activity is a transparent bridge that forwards the result to the foreground service; on Android 14/15 it must exist while the system dialog is open, so it cannot be noHistory.

Quick lookup without screen sharing

Section titled “Quick lookup without screen sharing”

On Android 11+ you can enable DSM’s accessibility service from Home → Quick lookup without screen-sharing prompt (or Android Settings → Accessibility → Installed apps). It may only take a screenshot when you box a word; auto OCR still uses MediaProjection because it also records the game’s audio. This is optional and off until you enable it.

Overlay permission

Section titled “Overlay permission”

The bubble, live text window and screen dictionary need Display over other apps. Some phones reset this permission after an update. If the bubble disappears, open the app’s Android settings and enable it again.

Section titled “Related”