Visual Intelligence is a key feature of Apple’s artificial intelligence, Apple Intelligence, where users can open the camera to capture images and AI can summarize text, copy text, translate languages, add appointments from announcements, or search for information from Google. This feature started to appear in iOS 18.2, but not all capabilities are available yet and it is limited to the iPhone 16 series because it needs to work with the Camera Control button.
However, with the introduction of the iPhone 16e yesterday, Apple mentioned that this model also has Visual Intelligence, calling the functionality from the shortcut Action button instead of the Camera Control button. This raises the question whether the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, which also have Apple Intelligence but lack Visual Intelligence due to the lack of a Camera Control button, should be able to utilize it in a similar format as the iPhone 16e through the Action button.
Tech blogger John Gruber reached out to Apple representatives regarding this issue and received a response stating that Apple will release a software update in the future that will allow the iPhone 15 Pro to use Visual Intelligence through the Action button. Gruber speculates that this update may be iOS 18.4, expected to be released in April.
TLDR: Visual Intelligence, a feature of Apple Intelligence, is available on the iPhone 16 series through the Camera Control button, while a software update may enable it on the iPhone 15 Pro through the Action button in the future.
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