Apple’s system-wide translate capability has been added to the Camera app in iOS 16, allowing users to interpret signage, packaging, and other items in real-time.
Opening the Camera app and aiming it at the text you wish to translate is all it takes to use the translate function. To receive a quick translation, tap the app’s text selection button to choose the recognized text, then select the translate option.
You may pause the display and zoom in to see the translations superimposed on the text. It’s a handy function that comes in handy while traveling and encountering signs or other words you don’t understand.
The Google Interpret app has long featured a similar function where you can use the camera to translate whatever text is around you, thus this new iOS 16 feature puts the iOS Camera app on a level with Google’s Translate option.
Apple has also included additional Quick Actions for this Camera function as well as other Live Text choices on iOS. Data identified in photographs, videos, and through the Camera app becomes actionable with Quick Actions.
Flight information, shipments, foreign languages, currencies, URLs, and more can all be tapped on from the content of photographs and videos, allowing you to follow parcels, convert currencies, browse URLs, and more.
At the moment, iOS 16 is only available to developers, with a public beta scheduled for July.