How to Use iPhone Live Text to Copy Text from Photos

Live Text lets your iPhone recognize printed text in any photo — then you can copy, search, or call a number directly from the image.

In this guide (5 steps):

1.Check Your iPhone Supports Live Text
2.Use Live Text in the Camera App
3.Use Live Text in a Photo
4.Call a Phone Number or Open an Email
5.Translate Text in a Photo

Check Your iPhone Supports Live Text

~15s

Live Text requires iPhone XS (2018) or newer and iOS 15 or later. To check your iOS version, go to SettingsGeneralAbout → iOS Version. To update, go to SettingsGeneralSoftware Update.

Use Live Text in the Camera App

~20s

Open the Camera app and point it at any printed or handwritten text. A small yellow frame icon appears in the lower right corner of the viewfinder — tap it to activate Live Text. The text in view becomes highlighted and selectable.

Quick Tip

Hold the camera steady and about 12 inches from the text for best recognition.

Use Live Text in a Photo

~16s

Open any photo in your Photos app that contains text. Tap and hold on any word in the photo. The text highlights in yellow, and a selection menu appears with "Copy," "Select All," "Look Up," and more. Drag the selection handles to select more text.

Call a Phone Number or Open an Email

~23s

When Live Text detects a phone number, email address, or web address in a photo, those items appear with a yellow underline. Tap a phone number to call it, tap an email to compose a message, or tap a web address to open it in Safari.

Quick Tip

This works great for business cards — photograph a card and tap the phone number to call without typing anything.

Translate Text in a Photo

~15s

Select text in a photo using Live Text, then tap the right-pointing arrow (▶) in the pop-up menu to see more options. Tap "Translate." iOS translates the selected text into your language and shows the result on screen.

You Did It!

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Live Text is one of the most practical iPhone features that most people never discover. It lets your iPhone read any text that appears in a photo — on a menu, a flyer, a business card, a prescription label, a street sign — and treat it as selectable text, the same way text in an email or document works.

Live Text is available on iPhone XS and later running iOS 15 or newer. It works in the Camera app in real time, in photos you have already taken, and even in screenshots.

Here is a common use case: you snap a photo of a restaurant menu and later you want to look up a dish. Instead of squinting at the photo and typing the dish name manually, you can tap on the text in the photo and copy it.

Another popular use: photographing a business card. Tap the phone number in the photo and Live Text recognizes it as a phone number you can call directly. Tap an email address and it opens a new email automatically.

Live Text also works for translating foreign language text. After selecting text from a photo, tap "Translate" in the pop-up menu and iOS translates the text immediately.

Live Text does not require an internet connection — the text recognition happens on your device. It is available in the Camera app, Photos app, Safari, and many third-party apps that use the iOS camera.

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