Use Quick Actions to Convert Currency & Translate Languages in iOS 16: Hands-On Guide

Introduced in iOS 15, Live Text could only extract text from images till now. However, with the arrival of iOS 16, the OCR (stands for Optical Character Recognition) powered feature can also copy text from videos. Couple that with the ability to be a smart currency converter as well as a language translator and it’s got the profile to stand out.

Make Sure Live Text is Enabled on Your iPhone

First off, make sure that Live Text is enabled on your device.  

  1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap on Camera.
  2. Now, ensure that the toggle next to Show Detected Text is turned on.

Use Live Text for Currency Conversion on iPhone

  1. To get started, launch the Camera app on your iPhone running iOS 16 or later.
  2. Now, you need to point your iPhone camera at the image or object that contains the currency you would like to convert.
  3. The Camera will automatically detect the currency symbol and show its value. Next, tap the Live Text icon that appears at the bottom-right corner of the camera viewfinder.
  4. Next up, tap on the Currency Converter icon located at the bottom-left corner of the camera viewfinder.
  5. The converted price based on the currency of your country will now show on your screen. Finally, you can tap the converted currency value to copy it. After that, close the Camera app and then you can share the converted currency through any app like Messages, WhatsApp, etc, and even shave it at the desired location.

Use Live Text for Language Translation on iPhone

Translating languages using the iPhone camera is just as straightforward.

  1. First off, launch the Camera app on your iOS device and then point the camera at the image, which contains the text you want to translate. The Camera will automatically detect the language.
  2. Now, tap on the Live Text icon that appears at the bottom-right corner of the camera viewfinder.
  3. Next, tap on the Translate icon shown at the bottom-left corner of the camera viewfinder. Voila! The translated text will now show in your native language on the screen.
  4. Next up, you can tap on the translated text on the screen to reveal more options. Alternately, you can also tap the play button to listen to the translated text.
  5. Up next, select Copy Translation from the list of options.
  6. In the end, close the Camera app and then share the copied translation through the desired app or save it at the preferred location.

Wrap Up…

There you have it! So, that’s how you can make the best use of the Quick Action with Live Text feature to translate languages and convert currencies using your iPhone camera. Having thoroughly tested this feature, I’m pretty impressed with its efficiency. Even though iOS 16 is still a work in progress, it functions without any blemish. That said, what do you have to say about this notable feature? Be sure to share your invaluable feedback. And if you could not catch up with our recent posts, make sure to check out how to use Safety Check, mark messages as unread and the tips to extract subjects from photos.