Subj : Visual Intelligence is getting a big upgrade with iOS 26, and her To : All From : TechnologyDaily Date : Tue Jun 17 2025 02:30:07 Visual Intelligence is getting a big upgrade with iOS 26, and here's why I can't wait to use it again Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2025 01:29:00 +0000 Description: Even without the AI-infused Siri, Apple delivered a significant upgrade to Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2025 in the form of a more handy Visual Intelligence. FULL STORY ====================================================================== As we expected, WWDC 2025 mainly the opening keynote came and went without a formal update on Siri. Apple is still working on the AI-infused update, which is essentially a much more personable and actionable virtual assistant. TechRadars Editor at Large, Lance Ulanoff, broke down the specifics of whats causing the delay after a conversation with Craig Federighi, here . Now, even without the AI-infused Siri, Apple did deliver a pretty significant upgrade to the Apple Intelligence , but its not necessarily in the spot youd think. Its giving Visual Intelligence a feature exclusive to the iPhone 16 family, iPhone 15 Pro , or iPhone 15 Pro Max an upgrade as it gains on-screen awareness and a new way to search, all housed within the power of a screenshot. Its a companion feature to the original set of Visual Intelligence know how a long press on the Camera Control button (or customizing the Action Button on the 15 Pro) pulls up a live view of your iPhones camera and the ability to take a shot, as well as Ask or Search for what your iPhone sees. Its kind of a more basic version of Google Lens , in that you can identify plants, pets, and search visually. Much of that wont change with iOS 26, but youll be able to use Visual Intelligence for screenshots. Following a brief demo at WWDC 2025, Im eager to use it again. (Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future) Visual Intelligence makes screenshots a lot more actionable, and could potentially save you space on your iPhone especially if your Photos app is anything like mine and filled with screenshots. The big effort on Apples part here is that this gives us a taste of on-screen awareness. Screenshotting a Messages chat with a poster for an upcoming Movie night in the demo I saw revealed a glimpse of the new interface. Its the iPhones classic screenshot interface, but on the bottom left is the familiar Ask, and Search is on the right, while in the middle is a suggestion from Apple Intelligence that can vary based on whatever you screenshot. In this case, it was Add to Calendar, allowing me to easily create an invite with the name of the movie night on the right date and time, as well as the location. Essentially, it's identifying the elements in the screenshot and extracting the relevant information. Pretty neat! Rather than just taking a screenshot of the image, you can have an actionable event added to your calendar in mere seconds. It also bakes in functionality that I think a lot of iPhone owners will appreciate even if Android phones like the best Pixels or the Galaxy S25 Ultra could have done this for a while. Apple Intelligence will provide these suggestions when it deems them right that could be for creating an invite or a reminder, as well as translating other languages to your preferred one, summarizing text, or even reading aloud. All very handy, but lets say youre scrolling TikTok or Instagram Reels and see a product maybe a lovely button down or a poster that catches your eye Visual Intelligence has a solution for this, and its kind of Apples answer to Circle to Search on Android. Youll screenshot, and then after its taken, simply scrub over the part of the image you want to search. Its a similar on-screen effect to when you select an object to remove in Photos Clean Up, but after that, it will let you search it via Google or ChatGPT. Other apps can also opt in for this API that Apple is making available. (Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future) And thats where this gets pretty exciting youll be able to scroll through all the available places to search, such as Etsy or Amazon. I think this will be a fan-favorite when it ships, though not entirely a reason to go out and buy an iPhone that supports Visual Intelligence ... yet, at least. Additionally, if youd rather search for just the whole screenshot, thats where the Ask and Search buttons come in. With those, you can use either Google or ChatGPT. Beyond the ability to analyze and suggest via screenshots, or search with a selection, Apples also expanding the types of things that Visual Intelligence can recognize beyond pets and plants to books, landmarks, and pieces of art. It wasnt all available immediately at launch, but Apple is clearly working to expand the capabilities of Visual Intelligence and enhance the feature set of Apple Intelligence. Considering this gives us a glimpse into on-screen awareness, Im pretty excited. You might also like I spoke to Apples software engineering VP for the inside story on how iPadOS 26 finally became a real Mac alternative The best value Mac just got even cheaper the M4 Mini is an absolute bargain at Amazon today I just experienced super-smooth Cyberpunk 2077 at Ultra settings on a Mac, but the developers say theres more to squeeze out of Apple Silicon ====================================================================== Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/ios/visual-intelligence-is-getting-a-big-upgr ade-with-ios-26-and-heres-why-i-cant-wait-to-use-it-again --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64) * Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100) .