Live Text recognizes language within your photos and within images that you find online. You can copy, share, translate, or look up any information that Live Text recognizes. And with Visual Look Up, it's easy to identify objects found within your photos.
What you need to get started
To use Live Text in your photos and online images, you need iPadOS 15 or later. Using Live Text in the Camera app requires iPadOS 15.1 or later. The features described are supported by these iPad models:
- iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later)
- iPad Pro 11-inch (all generations)
- iPad Air (3rd generation and later)
- iPad (8th generation and later)
- iPad mini (5th generation and later)
Use Live Text to get information in photos and images
To use Live Text with your photos, select an image in the Photos app. Touch and hold a word until it's highlighted, select more text if needed, then tap an option in the menu that appears. To highlight all the Live Text that's detected within an image, tap the indicator icon 
in the lower-right corner.
To use Live Text with an image online, touch and hold a word until it's highlighted, select more text, then tap an option.
Learn more about what you can do with Live Text in the examples below.
Copy or share text within a photo or image
- Go to the Photos app and select a photo, or select an image online.
- Touch and hold a word and move the drag points to adjust the selection.
- Tap Copy, or tap Share and then choose how you want to share the text.
Look up text from an image
- Go to the Photos app and select a photo, or select an image online.
- Touch and hold a word and move the drag points to adjust the selection.
- Tap Look Up.
After you tap Look Up, if you selected just one word, a dictionary appears. If you selected more than one word, you'll see Siri Suggested Websites and other resources for the topic.
Translate text within a photo or image
- Go to the Photos app and select a photo, or select an image online.
- Touch and hold a word and move the drag points to adjust the selection.
- Tap Translate. You might need to tap Continue, then choose a language to translate in, or tap Change Language.
To turn on Live Text for all supported languages, go to Settings > General > Language & Region, and enable Live Text. Translate is currently supported in English, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Send a message or an email
- Go to the Photos app and select a photo, or select an image online.
- Touch and hold a phone number or email address within the image. A menu of options appears.
- Tap an option in the menu, such as New Mail Message or FaceTime.
Use Visual Look Up to learn more about the objects in photos
With Visual Look Up, you can quickly learn more about some landmarks, art, plants, pets, and other objects that appear in your photos. You need iPadOS 15 or later to use Visual Look Up.
- Open a photo in the Photos app, then tap the Visual Look Up button
if it appears.
- Tap the icon that appears in the Info window or in the photo. For example, you might see a paw print icon
for pets and animals, or a leaf icon 
for plants and flowers.
If you don't see the Visual Look Up button , Visual Look Up isn't available for that photo.
