Visual Intelligence gets a big upgrade in iOS 27. It’s now easier to find than before, and there are new Visual Intelligence features. Apple has also extended it to the iPad and Mac, so you can use the same features on all devices.
Camera app
Apple moved Visual Intelligence to the Camera app in iOS 27, and it is accessible through a new Siri mode that accompanies Photo, Video, and other camera mode options. You can switch to Siri mode and take a photo so Siri can see what you see.
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Siri will give you details about whatever you’re looking at when you swipe down, and you can ask follow-up questions.
Siri mode replaces camera control as the primary method of accessing visual intelligence, but you can still access it by holding down the camera control button.
Smart suggestions
Siri mode will suggest relevant actions based on what you’re shooting. If you take a photo of a plant, Siri will ask you to identify it. If you take a photo of a plate of food, Siri can tell you the nutritional information.
Siri integration
Visual Intelligence is built into Siri AI, and Siri can answer questions about what you’re watching. Complex questions were previously forwarded to ChatGPT, but this is no longer necessary.
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The smarter, more capable version of Siri can do much of what ChatGPT can do, pulling information from the web to answer questions.
New iOS 27 Visual Intelligence Features
- Nutritional information – You can take a photo of a meal or food to check its nutritional value. Siri doesn’t tell you the specific calories in an item, but it can tell you if what you’re eating has nutritional value and what’s good or bad.
- Splitting invoices (US only) – If you take a photo of a restaurant bill, you can split what you ate and then send money via Apple Cash. Or calculate what everyone owes and ask for money.
- Import multiple events – You can import multiple events into the Calendar or Reminders app at the same time from a calendar or list.
- Import contacts – You can import contacts from a photo of a business card.
- Wallet Pass – You can transform a photo of a subscription barcode or pass it into a Wallet pass.
Visual Intelligence is much more powerful than before because of Siri’s ability to search the web for answers. It can read laundry detergent labels and give you clear instructions, search for items and find reviews on the web, identify strange appliances or cables and tell you what they’re for, scale recipes, read ingredient lists to check for allergens, transcribe messy written notes or lists into text, decipher confusing parking signs, offer plant care tips, solve math problems on a spreadsheet, and anything else you can think of. think about asking the AI to do it.
Other Visual Intelligence Abilities
Visual Intelligence has a long list of things it can be used for, and these options were available in earlier versions of iOS.
- Identify plants, animals, insects, monuments, artwork, sculptures, books and more.
- Add items to your calendar from a sheet of paper like a poster or event flyer.
- Use Google Image Search to find similar images.
- Search Etsy, Amazon, Anthropologie, and other apps for something you capture with the camera.
- Provide details about a business in front of you, such as opening hours.
- Translate, summarize and read the text aloud.
Siri app integration
All your Visual Intelligence Siri requests are saved in the Siri app so you can review them later. The Siri app can be configured to keep conversations for a month, a year, or forever.
Visual intelligence on other platforms
Apple has expanded Visual Intelligence to iPadOS 27, macOS Golden Gate, and visionOS 27. On Mac, you can use a keyboard shortcut Command-Shift-Space to go to Visual Intelligence and select a part of your screen to ask a question on. On iPad, you can access Visual Intelligence by taking a screenshot or swiping up from the bottom left corner with Apple Pencil.
On Vision Pro, you can use Visual Intelligence simply by looking at something, including physical objects around you.
Device Requirements
Visual Intelligence in iOS 27 requires iPhone 15 Pro or later. For Mac you need an Apple silicon chip, and on the iPad you need an Apple silicon chip or the iPad mini A17 Pro.
