RecognizeDocumentsRequest
New Vision framework API announced at WWDC 2025. Extends text recognition to understand document structure — tables, lists, paragraphs, barcodes, and auto-detected data types. Available in iOS 19+, macOS 26+, iPadOS 19+, visionOS 3+.
Why It Matters for Project Aries
This is a potential game-changer for receipt scanning on iOS. It provides structured data extraction (tables → line items, Data Detection → dates/currency/phones) entirely on-device, removing the need for cloud OCR APIs in many use cases. It is the most significant iOS document scanning advancement since VNDocumentCameraViewController (iOS 13).
Capabilities
Document Structure
- Tables: 2D cell array, row/column ranges, merged cell support, bounding regions
- Lists: hierarchical items with nesting
- Paragraphs: logical line grouping
- Barcodes: QR codes and other machine-readable codes
Data Detection
Auto-identifies in text: email addresses, phone numbers, URLs, dates, measurements, currency, flight numbers, payment identifiers, tracking numbers, postal addresses.
Uses the DataDetection framework internally.
Text Access Methods
| View | Description |
|---|---|
transcript | All text as single string |
lines | Array of lines |
paragraphs | Lines grouped into paragraphs |
words | Individual words (not CJK/Thai) |
detectedData | Machine-identified data items |
DocumentObservation Hierarchy
DocumentObservation
└── document (Container)
├── text
├── tables → rows → cells → content (Container with text, etc.)
├── lists → items → content
└── barcodes
Receipt Scanning Relevance
Table parsing directly maps to line items:
- Each row = one purchased item
- Cells = item name, quantity, unit price, line total
- Data Detection identifies currency amounts in cells
- Date detection identifies transaction date
26 languages covers major receipt languages.
Open Questions
- Real-world accuracy on varied receipt types (thermal paper, crumpled, multi-column, handwritten) — untested at scale as of June 2026
- Performance on older devices
- Whether table detection reliably identifies receipt line-item layouts vs. other table types
- The API was previewed at WWDC25 (2025); production availability expected with iOS 19/fall 2025 release cycle
Related Pages
- apple-vision-framework — Parent framework
- ios-receipt-scanning — Comprehensive receipt scanning guide
- wwdc25-vision-updates — All Vision framework WWDC25 announcements