How to use Live Text

Edit and translate image text on your iPhone

- Kenny Hemphill 

Not so long ago, text was text and an image was an image. You could copy, paste and edit text, but if the text you wanted to work on was part of an image, then tough luck. But all that changed with Live Text on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Now, even if the text is in an image, your device will recognise it and convert it to text for you to manipulate in any way you like. The tech is similar to the optical character recognition (OCR) that we've become used to over the past couple of decades. But in real time, with no lag, it feels like (incredibly useful) magic.

As well as editing, Live Text also enables you to translate the selected text in an image to a different language, and you can use Quick Actions to call a phone number in a photo, or get directions to an address. And you can do all of that for images in a still video frame too - you don't even need a photo to work from. Simply hold your iPhone up to printed text, with the Camera app open, and use Live Text to capture the text in the frame. 

HOW TO Use Live Text features >

1 Turn on Live Text