Apple VisionKit

Package

Apple framework to scan barcodes, text and documents with the camera on iOS

Price: Free, part of Apple's SDKs
Access: None, runs on device

About

VisionKit ships with Apple's SDKs and runs on the device. DataScannerViewController scans live camera video for QR codes, barcodes and text (iOS 16+, A12 chip or later), and VNDocumentCameraViewController presents a document scanner (iOS 13+). Apple platforms only.

What you can do with it

Scan QR codes and barcodes from the live camera in an iPhone or iPad app
Present Apple's document camera to scan paper pages into images for a PDF
Read text such as URLs or phone numbers from the camera and act on it

Get started

Add a camera usage description to your app's Info.plist
Check DataScannerViewController.isSupported and isAvailable
Present the scanner and call startScanning()

Example

import VisionKit

// Live QR codes and barcodes (iOS 16+)
let scanner = DataScannerViewController(recognizedDataTypes: [.barcode()])
scanner.delegate = self
present(scanner, animated: true) { try? scanner.startScanning() }

// Paper documents, page by page (iOS 13+)
let documentCamera = VNDocumentCameraViewController()
documentCamera.delegate = self
present(documentCamera, animated: true)

Details

Hosting: Runs locally
Available in: Worldwide
Official SDKs: Swift
MCP server: None