Apple is bringing its Visual Intelligence capability to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
It’s currently available on iPhone 16 models including the budget iPhone 16e which Apple announced yesterday.
Visual Intelligence is a package of additions you can access by clicking and holding the camera control button.
You can click and hold and direct your iPhone camera at a business to view details such as hours of operation, the menu or services offered and view a business’s website.
You can make a reservation or place an order if the business is set up to receive it.
It’s a sophisticated, extended and modern-day AI-powered version of the rudimentary Google Lens feature that came to market on Android phones in 2017.
iPhone 15 models do not have camera control, so activating visual intelligence will be done differently.
iPhone 16e enables it through the Action Control button so this will probably work the same way with iPhone 15 Pro models.
Technology blogger John Gruber’s carried the news on his Daring Fireball blog.
“Apple representatives also told me today that owners of the iPhone 15 Pro will soon be able to bind their Action Button to visual intelligence, ‘in a future software update’,” Gruber wrote.
“I suspect that future software update is iOS 18.4, which should be launching in beta any day now.
“It’s a little odd, frankly, that Apple didn’t enable this feature via the Action Button and Control Center for 15 Pro users months ago — perhaps they really wanted to wait for the 16e announcement?”
The unveiling yesterday of iPhone 16e with an OLED display means that Apple will no longer sell phones with LCD panels.
The now superseded iPhone SE 3 was the last iPhone model with an LCD screen. Apple’s transition to OLED on iPhones is complete.
That may not sound a big deal, but it means Apple no longer has to optimise its iOS software to work with the limitations of LCD screens.
Apple is freer to make the most of the wider array of colours and brightness available with high dynamic range.
