Have you ever spotted a great pair of shoes in a video and wondered where to buy them? Maybe someone sent you a photo of a restaurant, plant or gadget, and you wanted to know more without typing a description into Google.
Apple’s newly released iOS 27 gives an easier way to do that. Visual Intelligence can now understand what’s already displayed on your screen, so you can search an object, ask a question about it or take action based on what your iPhone sees. Apple says you can even turn information from a flyer or invitation into a calendar event.
Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel owners have a similar tool through Google’s Circle to Search. Instead of switching apps, you can select something directly on your screen and immediately search for more information.
Here’s how all three work and where you’ll find the controls on the latest software.
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Visual Intelligence previously focused heavily on things around you. You could point your iPhone camera at something and use Apple Intelligence to identify it or search for more information. iOS 27 expands that experience to content already displayed on your iPhone. Take a screenshot and Visual Intelligence can offer tools based on what it recognizes. Apple says those options can include visual search, questions about the screen, text summaries, Read Aloud and actions such as adding an event to Calendar.
That opens up some useful possibilities. Say you’re watching a video and notice a lamp you like in the background. You can pause the video, take a screenshot and search for something similar instead of trying to describe the lamp yourself. You could also receive a digital event flyer in Messages. Rather than switching to Calendar and manually entering the details, Visual Intelligence may recognize the event information and give you an option to add it.
That’s the big reason we’re looking at this feature now. iOS 27 brings Apple’s visual search much deeper into what you’re already doing on the iPhone. If you recently installed Apple’s latest update, you’ll also want to check out our article on you’ll want to try now.
One thing to keep straight is that an iPhone can support iOS 27 without supporting Visual Intelligence. Apple Intelligence on iOS 27 requires an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max or iPhone 16 model or later. Availability can also vary by language and region. Meanwhile, iOS 27 itself works on many older iPhones. So, if you installed iOS 27 on an older supported iPhone and don’t see these Visual Intelligence tools, your phone may simply lack the hardware needed for Apple Intelligence.
This is the new part I think many iPhone owners will want to try f
