When Apple launched its suite of AI features, Apple Intelligence, it was available for six iPhones: the four phones making up the iPhone 16 series and the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. But one feature was excluded from the last two phones. It’s just arrived. Here’s all you need to know.
iPhone 15 Pro gains Visual Intelligence.
Until earlier this week, there was a curious state of affairs: the entry-level iPhone 16e, much cheaper than the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max ever were, had Visual Intelligence when it launched on Feb. 26, but the two 15 Pros did not.
The reason it had been absent from the two 15-series Pro models was that they lacked the Camera Control, a neat and versatile new button found on the iPhone 16 range.
Visual Intelligence is a neat AI feature which lets you learn more about what the camera is looking at. Press and hold the Camera Control and point it at, say, a plant and it’ll tell you that you’re looking at a fiddle-leaf fig, for instance.
The iPhone 16e lacked the Camera Control, too, but achieved Visual Intelligence in a different way. You could assign Visual Intelligence to the Action Button, put it as an option on the Lock Screen or launch it from Control Center.
This nifty workaround, however, didn’t apply to the 15 Pro and Pro Max until the release of iOS 18.4, which happened on Monday, March 31.
Now, providing you’ve updated to the latest release, and as long as Apple Intelligence is turned on, the same mechanism applies.
Most convenient, I’d say, is the Action Button, but you may have other plans for that. In which case, second choice might be assigning it to the lock screen in place of the camera shortcut — after all, you can still launch the camera by swiping left on the lock screen.
Less convenient, but useful if you really don’t fancy the above two options is Control Center. Open Control Center by swiping the screen from the top right, press and hold the display and choose Add a Control. Under Apple Intelligence, you’ll find Visual Intelligence.
As a bonus, these new ways to launch Visual Intelligence now also apply to the iPhone 16, 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.
