Apple Pencil and iPadOS 14 will turn your handwriting into a typewriter

Apple just announced iPadOS 14, and with it a lot of new features, including a few worthwhile updates for the Apple Pencil. In particular, a new feature called Scribble promises to make writing experience on iPad become more coherent and stronger.

If you write something with Pencil in Notes, iPad will be able to copy and paste that handwritten content into other applications. That is, the text you write can be searched online or pasted into a document, and it will be converted to typed text instead of handwritten as it was.

In addition, if you write an address or phone number, iPad recommends activities related to them, lets you call that number, or find your way to the address you just wrote. This feature unfortunately only works in English and Chinese. Scribble will also automatically edit the drawings you drew with Pencil, ie if you draw a slightly distorted square, it will automatically make that square more square.

The Apple Pencil is an iPad-specific accessory, and is currently not compatible with the iPhone. The last time Apple updated this pen was in 2018. Apple Pencil now has wireless charging and built-in gesture control. The company has been working on making Pencil more powerful, and handwriting recognition could be seen as a new step on the journey to making it an even more attractive option for consumers.