One of the new iOS features that came as part of the iOS 18.4 upgrade is Visual Intelligence – one of the pieces of the Apple Intelligence puzzle. Visual Intelligence uses the iPhones camera to receive information and then provides information about what it sees.
Visual Intelligence can be accessed a couple of different ways. Note that Apple Intelligence must be enabled for access to Visual Intelligence.
Assigning Visual Intelligence to the Action Button
Apple makes it easy to access Visual Intelligence via the Action Button – the new button Apple introduced with the iPhone 15 . Here’s how to do it.
- Open Settings.
- Tap on Action Button.
- Swipe across until you see Visual Intelligence.
- Press and hold the Action Button (it’s the small button above the Volume Up control).
- The Visual Intelligence icon will appear on the Dynamic Island indicating that the feature has been assigned to the Action Button.
Adding Visual Intelligence to the Control Centre
Control Centre is the panel of buttons and widgets that are accessed when you swipe down from the top-right corner of the iPhone display.
Here’s how to add Visual Intelligence to Control Centre
- Launch Control Centrę by swiping down from the top-right corner of the iPhone display.
- Tap-hold on the screen (not on one of the current icons or widgets). “Add a Control” will appear at the bottom of the screen.
- Tap on “Add a Control”.
- In the search box at the top of the screen, type part of the name of the option you want to add. For example, I typed ‘Intel’ in the video below.
- Tap on the icon for Visual Intelligence.
- Drag it to your preferred position.
- Tap elsewhere on the screen to exit from the customisation mode.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.