What you need to know
- The latest iPadOS 14.5 betas have revealed more language support for Scribble.
- Scribble now supports German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese languages.
- Originally, Scribble only supported English and Chinese.
When Apple released iPadOS 14, there was a new feature called Scribble, which allows users to write in any text field on iPad with an Apple Pencil (or other compatible styluses). This handwritten text would automatically get converted into typed text. The latest iPadOS 14.5 beta has unveiled that Scribble support is coming to several more languages.
When Scribble first launched, it was only limited to the English and Chinese languages. In the developer and public betas for iPadOS 14.5, it has been discovered that Scribble is now supporting the German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese languages.
What this means is that anyone in these countries can write in their native languages with Scribble, and it will automatically and accurately be converted into typed text. In order to enable a specific language, you'll need to go through the "Keyboard" section in the iPad's Settings app.
As users add their preferred languages as a keyboard option, it gets listed under "Scribble" in the Apple Pencil settings on the iPad. Once this is done, that language becomes available to use when writing, and all special characters should also be supported.
If you're not familiar with the Scribble feature, it can be used systemwide on iPadOS 14. You can use your Apple Pencil to write out messages with iMessage, search Safari, get directions in Maps, create Notes, add new Calendar events, write emails, and more. Scribble also has some other nifty features like Smart Selection, which allows for copying and pasting of handwritten notes, as well as data detection to convert numbers and email addresses into something tappable.
The full list of supported languages for Scribble on Apple's website continue to list out English and Chinese, but that should change soon.
