Apple this week announced upgrades to iPadOS 14 that make key Apple Pencil features like handwriting-to-text and searchable handwriting compatible with five new languages.
Apple Pencil's Copy Handwriting as Text and Searchable Handwriting features are now available in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, Apple announced on its iOS and iPadOS features website. Previously, the two technologies were limited to English and Chinese. Copy Handwriting as Text allows users to select, copy, and paste handwritten text into a field other than typed text. The feature is similar to Scribble, which allows users to fill in text fields with Apple Pencil by converting handwriting into text.
iPadOS 14: The Apple Pencil is getting smarter
With Searchable Handwriting, iPadOS recognizes information such as phone numbers and addresses in handwritten text and gives users a convenient option to transfer these details to other apps such as Contacts, Maps or Messages. Apple Pencil features are now available in French (Belgium), French (Canada), French (Switzerland), French (France), German (Austria), German (Germany), German (Switzerland), Italian (Switzerland), Italian (Italy), Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America) and Spanish (Mexico) available. Apple last expanded Apple Pencil functionality in February this year, when the same five languages received support for doodling. (Photo by Unsplash / Alex Hu)