Apple this week announced upgrades to iPadOS 14 that make key Apple Pencil features like converting handwriting to text and Data Detectors compatible with five new languages.

Quietly announced through Apple's iOS and iPadOS Feature Availability webpage, Apple Pencil features Copy Handwriting as Text and Data Detectors are now accessible in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Previously, the two technologies were limited to English and Chinese.

Copy Handwriting as Text enables users to select handwritten text, copy it and paste in another field as typed text. The feature is similar to Scribble, which allows users to fill out text fields with Apple Pencil by converting handwriting into text on the fly.

With Data Detectors, iPadOS recognizes information like phone numbers and addresses in handwritten text, providing users a handy option to transport those details to other apps like Contacts, Maps or Messages.

The 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).

MacRumors spotted the iPadOS 14 change earlier today.

Apple most recently expanded Apple Pencil functionality in February, when the same five languages received support for Scribble.

Source: Appleinsider