How to Use Live Text in iOS 15 using iPhone?

When obtaining the text from an image, we rely on third-party OCR apps like Google Lens on our iPhones. Obtaining text from an image becomes vital when you need to do an online search, share a piece of particular information with someone, or take out emails and phone numbers of people from a picture. Apple realized the need of its customers and has recently introduced the Live Text feature in iOS 15 to do all of that.

iPhone users no longer need to depend on other third-party apps to obtain text from an image, and they can do it directly from their iPhones using the Live Text feature. It is one of the biggest additions for iOS users in the iOS 15 update, and here in this article, we will learn all about it. We will see how one can use this feature and identify the different ways to implement it. So without any further ado, let’s get into it.

How to Use Live Text in iOS 15?

The Live Text feature in iOS 15 works similar to how Google Lens works. It can extract text from images which can be a phone number, email address, or even directions in Apple Maps. You need to point your camera at the context, and you will receive the digitized form of it.

Yes, this feature we already have on Google Lens, but Google Lens is not properly integrated with the Android platform. On the other hand, Live Text is. So Apple has managed to come up with a more fluent and intuitive way of getting it done. Let’s look at all the different ways you can use Live Text on your iPhone running on iOS 15.

How to use Live Text in Camera App on iPhone and iPad?

Live Text is incorporated into the stock camera app of iPhones.

• Open up the camera app and point it at any object or text that you want to capture.
• Look for the “Live Text” icon in the bottom right corner of your screen. If your phone is in portrait mode, it will be in the bottom right corner, and if it is landscape mode, the icon will be in the bottom left corner.
• Live Text will automatically recognize the text. From there, you can select the text, which will show up five options; Copy, Select All, Lookup, Translate and Share.

Choosing Copy will let you copy the selected text onto your clipboard, choosing Select All will select all the extracted text, and choosing to Look up will search for the selected text online. Again, tapping on Translate will translate the selected text in your preferred language, and tapping on Share will share the extracted text via email, iMessage, or other similar apps.

How to use Live Text in Photos App on iPhone and iPad?

You can use it with the Photos app too.

• Open the Photos app on your phone.
• Open up the image from which you want to extract the text.
• The Live text icon that looks like a square will appear in the bottom right corner of your screen. It will recognize all the text in the image.
• From there, you can select the text, which will show up five options; Copy, Select All, Lookup, Translate and Share.

How to use Live Text to Recognize Handwriting in iOS 15?

If you have a handwritten note, you can use your camera app’s viewfinder to extract that text too.

• Open up the camera app and point the viewfinder at the note whose data you want to extract.
• The Live text icon that looks like a square will appear in the bottom right corner of your screen. It will recognize all the text in the image.
• From there, you can select the text, which will show up five options; Copy, Select All, Lookup, Translate and Share.

How to use Live Text Inside Messaging Apps in iOS 15?

If you want to share any piece of written information in an image with your friends or family using a messaging app like Whatsapp, iMessage, etc., you can do that too.

• Open the messaging app.
• Tap on the text input field. The option “Text from camera” will show up. Tap on it.
• Now use your iPhone’s camera app to extract any text from an image.
• That text will then show up in the input field, which you can then send over to your friend with just a single tap on the send button.

How to use Live Text in Spotlight Search on iOS 15?

You can use Live Text with Spotlight search too.

• Swipe down from the middle of the home screen to open Spotlight search.
• Tap on the text input field. The option “Text from camera” will show up. Tap on it.
• Now use your iPhone’s camera app to extract any text from an image.
• That text will then show up in the input field, which you can search on Spotlight.

How to use Live Text to Search in Safari on iOS 15?

Live Text is incorporated into Apple’s Web browser, the Safari. Like how you can use Live Text with Spotlight search, you can use it with your Safari browser. This gives users the liberty to search for anything they want online from an image on their smartphone.

• Open up the Safari Web Browser on your device.
• Tap on the search input field. The option “Text from camera” will show up. Tap on it.
• Now use your iPhone’s camera app to extract any text from an image.
• That text will now show up in the input field, which you can then search on the web.

How to Translate Text Offline Using Live Text in iOS 15?

Live Text works in several languages. So you can use this feature to perform offline translations for you if the need ever arises.

In this method, you first need to enable the on-device translation and then download the languages you want to translate.

• Open up the Settings app on your device.
• Choose the option “Translate.”
• Turn on the toggle for “On-Device Mode.”
• Just above On-Device mode, you will see “Downloaded Languages.” Tap on in, and a list of languages will show up. Here, download the preferred languages that you want for your translation offline.
• Now you can use Live Text to translate anything you want offline.

Only a few specific iPhones running on iOS 15 can do Live Text. This list includes:

• iPhone Xs
• iPhone Xs Max
• iPhone XR
• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Pro
• iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone SE 2
• iPhone 12
• iPhone 12 mini
• iPhone 12 Pro
• iPhone 12 Pro Max

Similarly, only selected iPads running on the latest version can use Live Text. This list includes:

• iPad Pro 2018
• iPad Pro 2020
• iPad Pro 2021
• iPad 8th-gen
• iPad Air 3
• iPad Air 4

Currently, only seven languages are available for recognition on Live Text in iOS 15. This includes English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, and Chinese. We will see more languages in the future.

This is all about the new Live Text feature introduced through the latest software update for iPhones, iPads, and Macs. If you have any questions or queries about this article, then comment below, and we will get back to you. Also, be sure to check out our other articles on iPhone tips and tricks, Android tips and tricks, PC tips and tricks, and much more for more helpful information.