Visual Intelligence is a new AI feature exclusive to the iPhone 16 series that relies on the camera control button. This feature is available in the iOS 18.2Here's what you can do with it, and how to get the most out of it.
Activating and using visual intelligence
Visual Intelligence works with Apple's Intelligence features, so it works if your device language is English, and your region setting is US.
To use Visual Intelligence, you need to long-press the camera control button for a few seconds to activate it. A normal press only opens the camera and controls it, so it takes a long press to access this feature. Make sure you're not already in the Camera app, as the feature doesn't work if the camera is active.
The visual intelligence interface includes a camera view, a photo capture button, and dedicated “Ask” and “Search” buttons. The “Ask” button communicates with ChatGPT, while the “Search” button sends the image to Google Search.
Using visual intelligence requires you to take a picture of what you’re looking at using the camera control button, then choose an option. The feature doesn’t work with “live camera view,” meaning you can’t point the camera at something and get information about it directly while you’re shooting. You have to take a picture first and then analyze it.
Also, you can't use photos you've already taken, which means you can't open your gallery and choose an old photo you've taken before to analyze. You have to take a new photo at the same moment you want to use the visual intelligence feature.
Get details about places
If you're somewhere and want to learn more about a restaurant or store, long-press the camera control button, then press again to take a photo or tap the place's name at the top of the screen. Immediately after that, you can see the place's hours of operation, order delivery (where available), view the menu, services offered, and the ability to book an appointment, as well as call the place, or visit their website.
Text summary
Take a picture of the text through the visual intelligence interface, then choose “Summarize” to get a summary of what’s written. This summary option is useful for long texts, but like other AI summaries, it’s brief and doesn’t provide in-depth details.
Read the text out loud
When you take a photo of text using the camera control button, you’ll see an option to hear the text read aloud. To use this feature, just tap the “Read Aloud” button at the bottom of the screen, and Siri will read it in the voice you chose.
Translate the text
If the text you captured with visual intelligence is in a language other than your own (currently limited to English), you’ll see a “Translate” option. You can tap it to get an instant translation.
Go to site links
If there is a link in the photo you took using visual intelligence, you will see a link you can click to visit the site.
Send emails and make calls
If there's an email address in the image, you can tap it to create a message in the Mail app. Likewise, if there's a phone number, you'll see an option to call it.
Create an event in the calendar
When you use Visual Intelligence on something that has a date, you'll see an option to add that event to your calendar.
Find and save contact information
For phone numbers, email addresses, and regular addresses, Apple says you can add the information to a contact in the Contacts app. You can also open addresses in the Maps app.
Scan QR codes
Visual intelligence can be used to scan QR codes. You don't need to take a photo, just point your camera at the code and tap on the link that appears. QR code scanning also works in the regular camera app without visual intelligence enabled.
Ask ChatGPT
You can take a picture of anything and tap the “Ask” option to send it to ChatGPT with a question about it. For example, if you take a picture of something and want to know what it is, tap “Ask” and then type “What is this?” to access the ChatGPT interface. ChatGPT will respond, and you can continue chatting with it about it if you have more questions.
Uses visual intelligence ChatGPT Integration with Siri, which is optional. By default, no data is collected, but if you sign in with an OpenAI account, ChatGPT can store conversations for future reference.
Google search
You can take a picture of anything you see and tap the “Search” option to use Google Image Search to find it online. This is a useful feature for finding things you might want to buy, for example.
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