A Windows long time favorite Utility “Snipping Tool” is being replaced with a new Windows app named “Snip & Sketch”.

The Snipping tool if you aren’t aware, is a screenshot utility that makes it easy on Windows to create quick and easy screen-grabs of only small sections of the screen, and even annotate with hand drawn marker.

In a recent update, Snipping Tool users will be greeted by an annotation stating that the Snipping Tool will soon be removed and replaced by Snip & Sketch.

Introducing Snip & Sketch

Snip & Sketch has an updated yet still limited toolset. There is still no text tool but it feels this tool was designed with touch screens and drawing tablets in mind.

The tool list is essentially the same with a new modern Windows Fluent design UWP app package. The marker and highlighter are still there with the same options, just an updated look.

We do gain a ruler tool and a crop tool. The ruler also becomes a protractor but to be honest I haven’t thought of a practical use for either. I am not sure what you can measure accurately from your monitor. Hopefully this isn’t a cheap afterthought and there are uses that I have not yet discovered. Honestly,

Snip & Sketch seems to really be a part of Microsoft’s efforts to turn all system utilities into self-contained apps that are updated and maintained independently of the main OS.

In fact, we can be almost sure of it since Snip & Sketch appears in the Windows store, even though it is installed by default, along with the Window Camera app, Voice Recorder, and Mail and Calendar for example.

Store link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/screen-sketch/9mz95kl8mr0l?SilentAuth=1&wa=wsignin1.0

I don’t personally see any downsides to this move so far. The functionality is unchanged in my opinion, it’s still an excellent tool that is incredibly useful (and underutilized) in daily tasks, including creating blog articles.

It was slightly disappointing to not at least see maybe a text tool or a shapes tool would have been excellent, something to draw arrows with or real circles.

A welcomed but lackluster update. Now that it is its own app with presumably a team to look after it, maybe we’ll see some improvements.

That said, since it is a Windows app now, you can leave feedback.