WhatsApp adds text detection feature for images
WhatsApp has started rolling out a new feature to its iOS app that can recognise and extract text from images, WABetaInfo reports.
The Meta Platforms-owned online chat platform previously enabled the feature for certain users of the WhatsApp for iOS beta app in early January 2023.
With the latest official release on the Apple App Store — version 23.5.77 — general users can now also use the feature.
Image-based text detection is supported through an API on iOS 16, the latest version of Apple’s iPhone operating system.
In Apple’s own apps, the feature is called Live Text, and allows for recognising information within the camera viewfinder, photos, videos, and images on the Internet.
Users who have installed the WhatsApp update can open an image containing text and copy its contents to a text file or app.
In addition, they will also be able to “Look Up” and “Translate” all the text or selected parts of it.
This screenshot from WABetaInfo shows the new features in the latest version of WhatsApp for iOS and how the text detection feature works
The feature is not supported for “view once” images to protect user privacy.
The latest WhatsApp iOS update also added the ability to create status updates from a voice note and picture-in-picture video support, allowing users to multitask while on video calls.
WhatsApp for Android does not currently support text detection in images, although Android parent Google offers two APIs that enable the capability — Cloud Vision and ML KIT Text Recognition.
It’s possible that these APIs do not meet WhatsApp’s requirements for protecting privacy, like full end-to-end encryption, or that it simply has not got around to integrating the Android API.
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