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Most tools, but notall.

When Apple launched theiPhone 16 lineuplast year, it also announced a new feature called Visual Intelligence.

The Action button settings in iOS 18.4 with a Visual Intelligence shortcut for the iPhone 15 Pro

Why, the very idea!

That’s changed, though, with the arrival of thesecond public beta of iOS 18.4.

And some of those powers are proving to be quite useful.

Launch the Settings app and go to Action button

Fortunately, you’ve got two other options, thanks to the iOS 18.4 update.

Go into the Action Button menu in controls.

Launch the configs app, and on the main screen,tap on Action Button.

swipe through Action button options to Visual Intelligence

From that point, whenever you press and hold the Action button, it will launch Visual Intelligence.

To add that control, simply edit your screen and choose the control you want to customize.

(In the screen above, we’re putting it on the bottom left corner.)

select Visual Intelligence as lock screen shortcut in iOS 18.4

Tap the icon to add it to your lock screen.

What can you do with this feature?

Essentially, Visual Intelligence turns the iPhone’s camera into a search tool.

An iPhone 16 Pro Max using Visual Intelligence to identify a portrait

The iOS 18.3 update that arrived last month added the ability toidentify plants and animals, for example.

The information that appears on your screen varies depending on what you point at.

Visual Intelligence can also get flummoxed in situations like these.

Visual Intelligence adding an event to your calendar

(It seems to default to the date at the top of the list.)

You have two other options for expanding on the info Visual Intelligence gives you.

Of those two options, ChatGPT seems to be the more fully featured in my experience.

Apple Intelligence using ChatGPT to capture a recipe

Google searches of Visual Intelligence image captures can be a lot more hit and miss.

Apple Visual Intelligence producing book reviews with Google Search

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The initial splash screen that displays when opening up Apple Visual Intelligence for the first time. It reads "Visual Intelligence with Camera Control - Learn about the objects and places around you and get even more information about what you see. Images from your camera are not stored on iPhone or shared with Apple."

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