According to Apple, Live Text can identify different kinds of information within photos (including screenshots) you capture or images you save off the internet. So you can click on a word to look up its definition, tap on an email address to send an email, or click on a phone number to make a call or send a message. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to use Live Text on your iPhone. [These steps can also come in handy if you’re using an iPad running iPadOS 15.]
Steps to Use Live Text in iOS 15
Live Text requires iPhone XS, XR, or a later model to work. And of course, it goes without saying that to be able to use Live Text on any of these compatible iPhones, you need them to be running iOS 15. With that out of the way, follow the steps below to enable Live Text on your iPhone: Once you’ve enabled Live Text, the following sections describe how to perform various Live Text operations on your iPhone.
Live Text: Copy Text Within a Photo
Highlighting text within a photo you capture using iPhone’s camera or save from the internet is a nifty feature that can come in handy when you want to capture text from images and paste it into another app or share with someone. Follow the steps below to copy text within a photo:
Live Text: Translate Text Within a Photo
One of the most useful applications of Live Text is to translate text in an image to a different language. If you’ve got an image in the Photos app that has text written in some foreign language, you can translate it easily with Live Text. Not just that, you can also point the Camera to some text to translate it into another language in real-time. To translate text using Live Text, follow these steps: At the time of writing this guide, Apple is supporting Live Text translation in English, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, and Spanish languages.
Live Text: Look Up Text on the Web
Much like pasting or translating the selected text within a photo, you can also look up its meaning/definition on the internet to learn more. Follow the steps below to look up a word: If you select a single word, Live Text will open a dictionary with a definition for that word. On the other hand, if you select a sentence, you’ll see No Content Found message, with the option to search the selected text on the web. Here, tap on Search Web to find the relevant information.
Make a Call or Send a Message with Live Text
Lastly, with Live Text on iOS 15, Apple also offers you the ability to make a call or send a message or email to a phone number or email address in a photo. So, if you want to quickly make a call or text (or email) someone from a banner or contact card, you can do so using the following steps:
Capturing Text Within Photos Made Easy With Live Text
As you’ve already seen, the Live Text OCR feature in iOS 15 opens doors to several new useful functionalities that were otherwise missing on the iPhones. So now, you can easily identify the text within an image and perform various operations on it: everything from pasting the selected text onto another app and looking up its meaning to translating it to another language and contacting (call/message/email) the identified phone number or email address.
1. Which iPhones support Live Text?
According to Apple, anyone with an iPhone XS, iPhone XR, or later running iOS 15 can use Live Text.
2. Does iPhone 7 or iPhone 8 have Live Text?
No. iPhones older than iPhone XR lack the necessary hardware and processing power needed for Live Text.
3. Does Live Text work on iPad?
Yes. As we mentioned earlier, you can use Live Text on your iPad. As per Apple, Live Text is compatible with the following iPad models:
iPad mini (5th gen or later) iPad (8th gen or later) iPad Air (3rd gen or later) iPad Pro 11-inch (all gen) iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd gen or later)
Of course, all of these iPads also need to be running iPadOS 15 to be able to use Live Text.
4. How to enable Live Text on iPad?
Enabling Live Text on iPad requires you to follow the same set of steps as you do on an iPhone. For detailed instructions, refer to the steps under the How to Use Live Text in iOS 15 section.
