Expectations where high when Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering,CRAIG FEDERIGHI,introduced the Visual Intelligence feature in iOS 26 at WWDC 2025.Many hoped for meaningful advancements beyond its current ability to identify places and objects through the iPhone camera. However, the announcement that Visual Intelligence options would be integrated directly into the iOS screenshot interface was somewhat underwhelming.

While these capabilities are undoubtedly practical, Visual Intelligence still falls short of the real-time conversational abilities offered by Google’s Gemini Live and Microsoft’s Copilot Vision. The ability to verbally interact wiht the AI about what it “sees” creates a more engaging and intuitive user experience. Although live interactivity isn’t essential, it adds a layer of excitement and naturalness that is currently missing from Apple’s offering. The foundation of Visual Intelligence is strong, but further development is needed to align with Apple’s signature approach to AI.

Visual Intelligence, like many of iOS’s standout features, is deeply integrated into the operating system and works seamlessly with its default applications. This eliminates the need to open a separate app and upload an image for AI analysis.

The new integration with the screenshot interface enhances its utility.After taking a screenshot, users are presented with options such as “Ask,” which sends the image to ChatGPT for analysis, or “Search,” which performs on-device scanning. With the latter, Visual Intelligence can identify data about an event and automatically create a calendar entry with the relevant details.