From Kobo to Twitter in 18 seconds

Quick iPhone Live Text workflow for quoting text on your e-reader and share to Twitter.

From Kobo to Twitter in 18 seconds
Kobo and iPhone, how to make quotes?

To make a quote from an e-reader like Kobo to another medium was always a pain. How do you get from reading something to making a reference on some social media like Twitter?

Pain

What I used to do was go to my computer instead, searched for the book, open it and find the text I was looking for. Once found the text I would do a copy and paste. In practice it did not happen and I even rather typed it over.

Mobile workflow

But with the new text feature (Live Text) on the iPhone I found a much quicker and easy to use workflow. It is even a bit magical. Like pointing at the thing you want to copy. You read a nice line and want to share it:

  1. Point the iPhone camera on the e-reader page.
  2. Select the text you want.
  3. Use the Live Text select function.
  4. Go straight to share and pick the Twitter app.

Clean up, add text, add tags and GO.

The Tweet

Share this article
Rob Hoeijmakers

Thanks for reading.

I’m Rob Hoeijmakers, a digital and AI strategist based in the Netherlands. I write about AI, organisations and technological change, with a European perspective and a focus on what these developments mean in practice. I’m also the founder of Schmuki, a digital and AI agency.

Every Thursday, I gather the latest essay — or a few of them — into a short note. If that’s useful, you’re welcome to receive it.