Apple introduced the Visual Look Up feature in iOS 15. However, the feature will get a major improvement in iOS 17. In short, this feature allows you to quickly identify objects in videos and photos. In this guide, we show you how to use visual search on your iPhone or iPad.
Summary:
iOS 17: How does visual search work?
Visual Search is one of the features on iPhone and iPad. The feature is similar to Google Lens or Live Text on iOS. The latter can read the text of your photo. In contrast, visual lookups give you context on the subject or object you’re viewing or highlighting.
Visual Search also lets you find more information about pets, plants, landmarks, and objects directly from your iPhone or iPad.
There are various ways to find objects or subjects in a photo or video. Here’s a step-by-step guide to this new iPhone feature.
iOS 17: How to use visual search for photos and videos?
Visual Search is integrated into the Photos app on iPhone or iPad, and now supports videos in addition to photos. However, you can also access it if you take pictures using the iPhone’s native camera app.
Here’s how to use visual search on a video or clip:
- Openphoto app
- select video where the topic is located
- pause video where the subject is clearly visible
- tap and hold about the topic or Click on the icon with a star At the bottom (in this case the dog icon)
- choose Research in float options
- A menu with results will appear, which you can swipe up to view full screen
- Press the close button (x) at top to return to video
In this example, you can determine the dog’s breed by tapping the dog icon and using the “Find” feature in iOS 17. /© nextpit
Visual Search instantly identifies certain subjects and objects in photos. After starting your search, your query was successful if the information icon is highlighted. Once you click on that icon, you will access another menu.
You can then tap a glyph icon (such as a plant leaf or an animal’s paw) to see the results and the information you can use. However, you can manually search for object details if no information is available.
Here’s how to do a manual visual search of photos:
- Openphoto app
- Select Image The location of the subject or object
- Press about the topic or Click on the icon with a star At the bottom (in this case the dog icon)
- choose Look for in options
- Show results, you can swipe up to see more
- Click the close button (x) back to photos
With the “Find” function, you can search for multiple people, animals or objects in the same image. / © Xiakeng
iOS 17: Which iPhones and iPads are compatible with Visual Search?
To use the visual search feature, your iPhone must have at least an Apple A12 Bionic SoC. To use this feature on video, your iPhone must be running iOS 17. Below is a list of iPhones that support Visual Look Up.
- iPhone XR
- iPhone XS (maximum)
- iPhone 11 (mini) and iPhone 11 Pro (max)
- iPhone 12 (mini) and iPhone 12 Pro (max)
- iPhone 13 (mini) and iPhone 13 Pro (max)
- iPhone SE (2022)
- iPhone 14 (Enhanced) and iPhone 14 Pro (Maximum)
Visual Search is also compatible with iPad and iPad Pro with SoC A12 or later. However, at this time you cannot perform object recognition on videos on the iPad. Below you’ll find compatible iPad models for this feature.
- iPad Mini 5 (2019) and iPad Mini 6 (2021)
- iPad 6 (2018), iPad 9 (2021) iPad 10 (2022)
- iPad Air 3 (2019), iPad Air 4 (2020), iPad Air 5 (2022)
- iPad Pro 11 (2018), iPad Pro 11 (2020), iPad Pro 11 (2021), iPad Pro 11 (2022)
- iPad Pro 12.9 (2018), iPad Pro 12.9 (2022), iPad Pro 12.9 (2021), iPad Pro 12.9 (2022)
What do you think of the new visual search feature in iOS 17? Have you used this feature yet? What other iOS 17 features would you like a tutorial on?
Go a step further and find out about all the new features of iOS 17 coming to your iPhone this year. Also learn how to use Apple Maps offline on iPhone.
