While studying for exams, some students find it difficult to skim and analyze complex datasets such as charts and statistics. Instead of manually typing it out, they take a snap of it using their iPhone and quickly copy the entire dataset. This happens with the Live Text iPhone feature that precisely captures the text and lets you perform various actions on it.
Users can recognize and interact with text in images and videos with this feature. However, for more enhanced and advanced text recognition, you can utilize UPDF, which is an AI-powered PDF management application that offers precise OCR. You can conveniently interact with the text in images as well with UPDF AI.
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Read the article till the end to learn how to use the Live Text functionality on your smartphone.
Part 1. What is Live Text on iOS, and How Does It Work?
The Live Text iOS feature recognizes and processes the text in images and videos taken on your iPhone for multiple purposes. You can perform multiple actions on the extracted text, such as copy and paste it, and even translate it into multiple languages. Moreover, you can look up information, such as searching for an address or locating it on Maps with a support for more than 40 languages.
Mentioned below are the iOS devices on which the Live Text feature is supported:
- iPhone SE (2nd generation and later)
- iPhone XR
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone 11 (Pro, Pro Max)
- iPhone 12 (mini, Pro, Pro Max)
- iPhone 13 (mini, Pro, Pro Max)
- iPhone 14 (Plus, Pro, Pro Max)
- iPhone 15 (Plus, Pro, Pro Max)
- iPhone 16 (Plus, Pro, Pro Max, e)
Part 2. How to Turn On Live Text?
If you are a new iPhone user and do not know how to turn the image to Live Text iOS utility on, read the instructions mentioned below:
Instructions. Access the system settings on your iPhone and locate the "General" option. Tap on the "Language & Region" option located in the next interface and turn the toggle on for the "Live Text" option in the following interface.

Part 3. Interact With a Photo, Video, or Camera Using Live Text
Read the steps mentioned below if you do not know how to capture text on images, videos, and cameras using the Live Text option:
Step 1. Activate the Live Text Feature
On Images: Open a picture from which you want to extract text from your Photos App, and let it load. Locate the “Scan” option from the bottom-right corner of the screen and tap on it to activate.

On Videos: Pause the video after opening it in the Photos App and tap on the “Scan” icon located at the bottom right corner.

On Live Camera: Place the text in front of your phone’s camera after launching the Camera application on your iPhone. Now tap on the “Scan” icon located at the bottom right corner of the interface.

Step 2. Copy and Extract the Text
After enabling the Live Text scanner, select the text by dragging your fingers on the screen. Once selected, tap on the “Copy” option located at the floating bar to extract the text and paste it wherever you want.

Step 3. Look Up Text
When you have selected the text by enabling the Live Text iPhone feature, tap on the “Look Up” option from the floating toolbar. The utility will provide you with the relevant information and related text by searching the internet.

Step 4. Translate Text
Tap on the “Translate” option from the left after enabling Live Text. The utility will instantly convert the text into your desired language.

Step 5. Search Web
The “Search Web” feature from the same toolbar diverts you to the search engine after selecting the text. It automatically extracts the text and searches for the relevant results on the web.

Step 6. Speak Text
This feature speaks out the text loud when enabled within the Live Text iOS utility. You simply select the text after enabling the scan and choose the “Speak” option from the floating toolbar.

Step 7. Spell Text
Activate the “Spell” option by tapping on the toolbar after selecting the text within the Live Text utility. This will make your system dictate the spelling of the word out loud for you.

Step 8. Share Text
Tap on the “Share” option from the toolbar to share the selected text to different platforms given at the bottom.

Part 4. Image-to-Text Conversion with UPDF
As discussed, the iPhone Live Text to Image utility is ideal for grabbing quick text from images and videos, but it does not work for complex datasets such as PDFs. Most people require the text extraction utility for their important documents, which are saved in PDF format. For this, applications like UPDF come in handy.
This AI-powered PDF management app provides the OCR facility that automatically scans the text within a document and converts it into editable and searchable text. Besides the extraction of text from scanned PDF documents, UPDF also provides a recognition utility for images.
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Comprehensive Steps For Performing OCR with the UPDF App
As discussed, UPDF offers a precise Optical Character Recognition feature to scan the files instantly. Mentioned below are the steps to utilize this feature conveniently:
Step 1. Start By Creating a New PDF Document
Launch UPDF for iOS on your smartphone and tap on the “Files” option to add your scanned PDF. Once the document is loaded, hold and press the screen to enable a floating toolbar. Swipe through it to find the “OCR” option and tap on it.

Step 2. Select the Text and Perform Actions
Make the text editable by tapping on the “Scan” icon on the bottom right. Select the text and choose the action to be performed from the toolbar that is enabled.

If you are looking for a more comprehensive solution for Live Text on iPhone, try using UPDF on your desktop, as it provides various document management and text extraction features. Users get the ability to extract the document without performing any manual tweaks. For a better idea, go through the provided features to understand why UPDF’s OCR is a perfection:
- Format Preservation: UPDF can transform your scanned documents into an editable PDF without losing the original format.
- Multiple Language Support: You get support for text extraction in more than 38 languages.
- High Accuracy Level: The accuracy level for the action performed through UPDF OCR is 99%.
- Various Output Formats: It supports multiple formats, such as JPG and PDF, to let users perform OCR on diverse files.
- Multilingual Text Recognition: This tool enables users to recognize text in multiple languages within the same document for more efficient document management.
To learn more about UPDF’s OCR functionality, refer to this link and download the tool today.
Conclusion
This article discussed how you can utilize the Live Text iPhone feature for different purposes. The article also suggested a more comprehensive solution for precise text extraction through UPDF OCR. If you want to make the most out of your PDF files, extract text by downloading UPDF today, as it is one of the most reliable solutions.
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