iOS 15 It comes loaded with new features that offer a much more intuitive user experience. One of these new features is Live Text —Also called Live Text—, a feature that allows you to recognize the text of an image or photograph to be able to perform actions on the iPhone itself.
Live Text is a service of optical character recognition (OCR), a technology that can detect printed or handwritten text and, in this case, display it as text on a device screen. On the iPhone, this feature is really useful. For example, we can take a picture of a business card and Live Text will automatically detect the text, phone number, email or address.
On the iPhone screen, the text will be highlighted and we can perform different actions, such as copy it, share it, call or send a e-mail. Live Text also works as a translator in real time, it is only necessary to focus the text in another language, press the button to translate.
The function also offers the privacy measures so characteristic of Apple. The company does not collect information about the data shown in the images. Neither does the personal information that we extract from them. In fact, Live Text can be used without an internet connection.
How to use Live Text on iPhone
On the iPhone, Live Text works in two ways. it’s possible use camera app to detect text, without the need to take a picture. When the iPhone detects that there is something written, it will show a button at the bottom of the screen. By clicking on the button, the detected text will be highlighted and the tactile feedback will be activated so that it is possible to select it and perform the action.
Live Text is also present in the photographs, even in those that we can download through the internet. To select text from an image, you only need to access the Photos app and click on the Live Text icon that will appear at the bottom of the screen.
Practical Uses for Live Text in iOS 15
Live Text in iOS 15 has very interesting uses, such as being able to save the phone number, translate a letter of a restaurant or pass something that we have written by hand to text. Here you can get some examples.
- Translate a poster: Point the camera at the poster, select the text and click on the “Translate” button that appears on the screen. Select your language and wait for the text to be translated.
- Save a phone number: scan a phone number, copy it and paste it into the phonebook to save the contact.
- Call a phone number: focus the camera, activate Live Text and select the phone number. Then click on “Call”.
- Write an email: you just have to focus the camera, select the address and press the button to send an e-mail.
- Transform your handwritten text into digital text: select the text, copy and paste it into the Notes app or another similar app.
- Don’t know what a word means? Focus the camera, select the word and click “Consular” for more information.
iOS 15, the new version of the iPhone operating system, is coming to iPhone 6s and later in the fall. However, the function will be limited to those devices that have a A12 Bionic chip (integrated in the iPhone XS and XR) or higher.