iPhone's all-seeing smart eye

How to get the most out of Apple's Visual Intelligence.

Author

Leander Kahney
April 30, 2025

Of all the Apple Intelligence features available on iPhone, Visual Intelligence excites me the most.

I find it thrilling to imagine my iPhone as not just a camera, but an intelligent eye, able to tell me about the world around me.

Visual Intelligence is pretty good — and sometimes, almost magical.

I remember the first time I used it, to look up info on a mystery caterpillar my mom found crawling in her kitchen. I was almost giddy when Visual Intelligence served up a bunch of useful info and links.

But — as usual — I keep forgetting the feature’s there! I use Visual Intelligence occasionally, but it’s not a habit.

It’s a shame, because it can do a bunch of useful things, like automatically adding events to your calendar, or pulling up a menu if you’re outside a local eatery. And it’s great for identifying plants, products, landmarks and much more.

Apple’s only getting started with it, too. I expect Visual Intelligence to become much more capable. Here’s how to use Visual Intelligence, how it works, and how to get the most out of it.

Also in today’s newsletter:

  • This is a great price for a pair of Beats Studio Pro noise-canceling headphones. I bought a used pair a couple of years ago on eBay for about the same price (these are new). I love them.

  • Meta, Spotify and others have long complained about Apple and Google’s tight grip on the mobile marketplace. Now they're teaming up, Avengers-style, to battle the two giants. Their first skirmish is kinda odd, though.

  • I’m not a huge fan of U2 and Bono, but his autobiographical one-man show got good reviews — and now it’s coming to Apple TV+ and Vision Pro as an immersive, full-length documentary. It’s got a great production team behind it.

  • I’ve long been interested in picking up an iPhone game controller, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t get a lot of use out of it (I’m not a huge gamer). However, this one’s cheap enough to tempt me. See our hands-on review.

  • If you don’t like the new Photos app design, here’s how to get a grip on it.

— Leander Kahney, EIC.

Look things up with your iPhone's camera using Visual Intelligence

A new AI feature in iOS 18.2, Visual Intelligence gives iPhone 16 (and iPhone 15 Pro) users a quick, easy way to find information on an object in the real world.

Meta, Match and Spotify join forces against Apple and Google

Meta, Match and Spotify join forces against Apple and Google over app store practices, including who should be saddled with age verification.

Despite tariff turmoil, Wall Street expects good news from Apple

Get ready for the Apple financial results announcement: Wall Street anticipates a revenue increase despite trade challenges.

A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team

Get $180 off Beats Studio Pro headphones

Land a pair of great noise-canceling headphones at a phenomenal price with this excellent Beats Studio Pro deal.

Meta AI lands on iPhone with a dedicated app

A new app provides easy access to Meta's Llama 4 AI model and an enhanced voice mode for personalized responses.

Bono documentary doubles as first full-length video for Vision Pro [Apple TV+ trailer]

Documentary "Bono: Stories of Surrender" re-creates the U2 frontman's stage show on Apple TV+ and as the first full-length Vision Pro video.

Your wait for an amazingly affordable iPhone game controller ends now [Review]

The GameSir X5 Lite is the game controller for those who’ve hoped for a truly affordable way to add physical buttons and sticks to their iPhone. It costs a fraction of the price of its chief rival.

A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team

Digitize all your old film and slides with this Kodak scanner

Easily digitize old slides and film negatives (color or black-and-white) to preserve them with the Kodak Scan N Save slide film scanner.

Don't let iOS 18's radically redesigned Photos app throw you for a loop

The new Photos app in iOS 18 is the biggest change ever to how you browse your pictures, videos and memories. Here’s how to use it.

Today in Apple history: First iPad 3G tablets land in customers' hands

On April 30, 2010, the first Wi-Fi + 3G iPads arrived in the hands of U.S. customers. The tablet became Apple's fastest-selling new product.

Behold 'an Apple fan's dream setup' [Setups]

One Apple fan's dream setup may not be another's. This MacBook Pro, Mac mini and Studio Display user found that out on social media.

Tweets of the day

Wallpaper of the day

One more thing ...

❝

And how are monopolies lost? Think about it. Some very good product people invent some very good products, and the company achieves a monopoly. But after that, the product people aren't the ones that drive the company forward anymore. It's the marketing guys or the ones who expand the business into Latin America or whatever. Because what's the point of focusing on making the product even better when the only company you can take business from is yourself? So a different group of people start to move up. And who usually ends up running the show? The sales guy. John Akers at IBM is the consummate example. Then one day, the monopoly expires for whatever reason. But by then the best product people have left, or they're no longer listened to. And so the company goes through this tumultuous time, and it either survives or it doesn't. Look at Microsoft — who's running Microsoft? (Interviewer: Steve Ballmer.) Right, the sales guy. Case closed. And that's what happened at Apple, as well.

— Steve Jobs, 2005.

Today’s poll

Do you use Visual Intelligence?

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Results from yesterday’s poll: How important are streaks like closing your rings?

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