Pinyin camera: point your iPhone at Chinese menus and signs

Is there an app that shows pinyin when you point your camera at Chinese?

Yes, on iPhone: open BeChinese’s camera and point it at the Chinese in front of you, on a menu, a sign, a package or a page of a book. Brush or tap the characters you can’t read, and their pinyin appears over them and stays on them as you move. They’re read aloud, and a card shows what they mean, with a button to save the word. You don’t have to take a photo first.

It’s for learning to read the Chinese yourself, not for translating it: the pinyin shows only on the words you pick, so you try the rest on your own. When you want it all, Show all pinyin, at the bottom left, puts every word’s pinyin on the picture at once.

Take a photo to read the rest

Press the shutter, and the picture freezes and opens in the Lens, so you can put your phone down and read the whole page at your own pace: brush across a line, pinch to zoom in on small print. Close the Lens, and you’re back at the camera for the next one.

Ways to open the camera

In BeChinese, on Scan, tap Read from camera.
On the Home Screen, touch and hold BeChinese’s icon, then tap Read with Camera.
Add Read with Camera to Control Center or the Lock Screen.
On an iPhone with Camera Control, press it: once to open the camera, again to take a photo. It works on a locked iPhone too: take the photo, unlock, and it opens in the Lens.

Set up Camera Control

In Settings, search Launch Camera and choose BeChinese. From then on, Camera Control opens BeChinese instead of Camera. BeChinese walks you through it: in its Settings, tap Set up Camera Control.

Tips

In a dim restaurant, tap the light at the top.
Pinch to zoom in on a sign across the street or the small print on a package.
Menus in Taiwan, Hong Kong and many Chinatowns are in traditional characters. BeChinese reads simplified and traditional both.

What you need

An iPhone on iOS 26 or later. You sign in with Apple or Google, then choose a plan, yearly, monthly or weekly, through the App Store. The yearly plan can start with a free week.