How to Use Visual Intelligence to Search Your iPhone Screen

Visual Intelligence is a powerful new AI feature in iOS 26 that lets you interact with anything displayed on your iPhone’s screen. Think of it as a search tool for your screen content. If you see a product in a video, a landmark in a photo, or an event flyer in an app, you can use Visual Intelligence to get more information, search for similar items online, or even add an event to your calendar.

This feature is integrated with Apple Intelligence and works by analyzing a screenshot of your screen. It’s a fast and private way to get answers about what you’re looking at, without leaving the app you’re in.

In this article:

What You’ll Need to Use Visual Intelligence

This feature requires specific hardware due to its reliance on Apple Intelligence. Before you start, make sure you have:

An iPhone 15 Pro or a newer model.
iOS 26 or a later version installed.
Apple Intelligence enabled in your iPhone’s settings.

How to Search Your Screen with Visual Intelligence

Using the feature is as simple as taking a screenshot and highlighting what you’re interested in. The tools appear automatically on the screenshot preview screen.

Take a screenshot by pressing the Side button and the Volume Up button at the same time.
A large preview of your screenshot will appear. At the bottom, you will see the new Visual Intelligence tools. If you see the Markup drawing tools instead, tap the pen icon at the top of the screen to switch to the Visual Intelligence interface.
Use your finger to circle or scribble over the specific item on the screenshot you want to know more about, like a pair of shoes or a block of text.
Tap one of the action buttons that appear. Tap Search to perform a web search for the item, or tap Ask to ask a specific question about it using Apple Intelligence. Contextual buttons, like adding an event to your calendar, may also appear if relevant information is detected.
Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to see your search results or answers.
When you’re finished, tap to close the results and swipe up from the bottom of the screen to exit.

Additional Tips

Use it anywhere. Visual Intelligence works on screenshots from any app, website, video, or even a game.
Customize your Action Button. For even quicker access, you can assign Visual Intelligence to the Action Button. Go to Settings > Action Button and select it from the list of options.
Privacy is built-in. The feature uses on-device AI for most tasks, which means your screen content is analyzed privately on your iPhone.