Live Text, also called Live Text in Dutch, is a handy new feature that automatically recognizes text in photos. You can therefore select the text and, for example, copy it. This can come in handy in all sorts of situations. It's a new feature in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, but on the Mac, Apple is adding the Live Text feature with macOS Monterey as well. Originally this was only supposed to work on models with the latest M1 chip, but as of the fourth beta of macOS Monterey, it will work on all models that can run the update.
Live Text is coming to all Macs with macOS Monterey
Apple is adding features in macOS Monterey that only work on M1 Macs, i.e. models with Apple Silicon. So one of those features was Live Text, as a small footnote on Apple's overview page read. But the macOS Monterey beta 4 release notes state the following:
Live Text
New Features in macOS Monterey 12 beta 4
- Live Text now works across all Mac computers that support macOS Monterey.
So that's good news for the majority of Mac users. It's not clear why Apple has changed its mind. But what is certain is that the function on the Mac is less advanced than on the iPhone and iPad. On the iPhone and iPad, it also works through the camera, so the device literally recognizes live text, so before you take a photo. On the Mac, of course, this is not necessary due to the lack of an extensive camera system, so that only photos that are already on the Mac need to be analyzed for text. You can select text from, for example, the Preview app.
Note that Apple can always roll back the required models if it turns out not to work properly. After all, we are only at the fourth beta and many more will follow. Plus, there are plenty of other macOS Monterey features that only work on M1 models.