Live Text: Copy, Translate, and Search Any Text in Your Photos
That Wi-Fi password scribbled on a whiteboard, a phone number on a business card, an ingredient list on a jar in a foreign language — you can interact with all of it directly from your iPhone’s camera or photo library. No typing required. Live Text recognizes words in images and lets you copy, translate, search, and act on them as if they were regular text on a screen.
What Is Live Text?
Live Text is Apple’s built-in optical character recognition (OCR) system that runs directly on your device. It works in the Camera app, the Photos app, Safari, Quick Look, and even inside screenshots. When your phone detects text in an image, it makes that text selectable and interactive — just like text on a webpage.
The recognition happens locally on the Neural Engine, which means it’s fast, private, and works without an internet connection for basic tasks. Apple first introduced Live Text with iOS 15, and it has gotten significantly smarter since then. As of iOS 26, it handles handwritten notes with much better accuracy and supports a wider range of languages including Japanese, Korean, and Ukrainian.
What makes Live Text genuinely useful in daily life is how seamless it is. You don’t need to open a separate app or take any extra steps. It just works, quietly, in the background — wherever text appears in an image on your device.
How to Use Live Text on iPhone and iPad
There are two main ways to use Live Text, and both work the same way once text is detected:
Method 1: From an Existing Photo
1
Open a Photo with Text
Open the Photos app and select any image that contains text — a sign, a menu, a document, a handwritten note, anything.
2
Look for the Live Text Icon
When text is detected, a small icon appears in the bottom-right corner — it looks like lines of text inside a rounded square. Tap it to highlight all recognized text in the image.
3
Select and Interact
Long-press on a word to start selecting, then drag the handles to expand your selection. A menu appears with options: Copy, Select All, Look Up, Translate, Search Web, and Share.
Method 2: Directly from the Camera
1
Point Your Camera at Text
Open the Camera app and aim it at any text you want to capture. No need to take a photo.
2
Tap the Live Text Icon
The same text-detection icon appears in the viewfinder corner. Tap it, and the camera freezes on the current frame with all text highlighted and selectable.
3
Copy, Translate, or Act on It
Select the text you need and choose your action from the popup menu. You can copy a Wi-Fi password, translate a menu, or call a phone number — all without taking a photo first.
10 Real-World Uses That Make Live Text Indispensable
The feature sounds simple on paper, but it genuinely changes how you interact with the physical world through your phone. Here are scenarios where Live Text shines:
Grab Wi-Fi Passwords
Point your camera at the Wi-Fi password on a router sticker or cafe sign. Select the password, copy it, and paste it straight into your Wi-Fi settings. No squinting, no typos.
Translate Restaurant Menus
Traveling abroad? Point your camera at a menu in another language, select the text, and tap Translate. The translation appears inline, right there on the image.
Call Numbers from Signs
See a “For Rent” sign with a phone number? Live Text detects it as a phone number and lets you tap to call or add it to your contacts with one tap.
Add Events from Flyers
Take a photo of a concert flyer or event poster. Live Text recognizes dates and offers to create a calendar event directly.
Digitize Book Passages
Snap a page from a physical book and copy the text into Notes. Saves massive amounts of time when taking research notes or quoting passages.
Scan Business Cards
Point your camera at a business card. Live Text detects the name, email, phone number, and address — and lets you create a contact in one step.
Extract Receipt Data
Photo a receipt and copy the total, date, or individual items into a spreadsheet or expense tracker. Handy for business expense reports.
Capture Whiteboard Notes
After a meeting, photo the whiteboard and select the text. Paste it into Notes or an email. Works surprisingly well even with messy handwriting.
Search the Web from Photos
Select any text in a photo and tap “Search Web” to instantly Google it. Great for looking up unfamiliar terms, product names, or addresses.
Tracking Numbers
Photo a shipping label and copy the tracking number. Paste it into your browser or delivery app to check the package status.
Supported Languages
Live Text supports a growing list of languages for text recognition. As of iOS 26, you can recognize text in English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Ukrainian, Arabic, Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese, and several other languages. Apple typically adds new languages with each major iOS release.
Translation through Live Text supports all the languages available in the Translate app, so you can point your camera at text in one language and get an instant translation into another.
Live Text in Videos
Starting with iOS 16, Live Text works in paused video frames too. If you’re watching a video in the Photos app or Safari and pause on a frame that contains text, you can select and interact with that text using the same gestures. This is incredibly useful for capturing information from video tutorials, presentations, or news broadcasts.
Which Devices Support Live Text?
Live Text requires an A12 Bionic chip or later, which means:
iPhone: XS, XR, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, SE (3rd gen) and later
iPad: iPad (8th gen+), iPad Air (3rd gen+), iPad mini (5th gen+), all iPad Pro models with A12 or later
Mac: Any Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 and later)
If you have a compatible device but Live Text isn’t working, check that it’s enabled: go to Settings → General → Language & Region and make sure “Live Text” is toggled on. Also ensure your device is updated to at least iOS 15.
Tips for Better Live Text Results
Good lighting matters. Live Text works best when the text is well-lit and in focus. In low light, try using the camera’s flash or moving to a brighter area.
Hold steady for small text. For tiny text like ingredient lists or serial numbers, hold your phone still and let the camera autofocus. Getting closer and pausing for a second gives the Neural Engine time to process.
Try photos you already have. Live Text processes your entire photo library, not just new images. Scroll back through old photos of receipts, notes, and signs — the text in all of them is now selectable and searchable.
Use Spotlight search. Here’s a hidden superpower: text detected by Live Text is indexed by Spotlight. Swipe down on the Home Screen and type a word that appeared in a photo, and that photo can show up in search results. It effectively makes every photo with text in it searchable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Any iPhone with an A12 Bionic chip or later — that’s iPhone XS, XR, and every model since. iPads with A12+ and Macs with Apple Silicon are also supported. The feature was introduced with iOS 15.
Yes for text recognition and copying — it’s processed on-device. Translation and web search require an internet connection, but the core OCR functionality works entirely offline.
Yes, though accuracy depends on legibility. Neat handwriting is recognized reliably. Messy or heavily stylized cursive may have occasional misreads, but it’s improving with each iOS update.
English, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Ukrainian, Arabic, Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese, and more. Apple adds new languages with major iOS releases.