DB Labs
What Is Visual Lookup?
Visual Lookup is an iOS 15+ feature built into the Photos app that uses on-device machine learning and Siri Knowledge to identify what is in your photos. It recognizes plants, animals (including specific breeds), landmarks, famous artworks, and food. To use it, open any photo, tap the info (i) button, and look for the sparkle icon indicating a recognized subject. No extra app is needed and no photo is uploaded — recognition happens on your device.
How to Use Visual Lookup
Visual Lookup is accessed through the photo info panel. Here is the step-by-step process:
- Open the Photos app and tap any photo you want to identify.
- Tap the info button (i) at the bottom of the screen, or swipe up on the photo.
- If Visual Lookup recognizes something in the photo, you will see a section labeled "Look Up" with a small icon — a leaf for plants, a paw print for animals, a building for landmarks, or a paint palette for artwork.
- Tap Look Up to see detailed information from Siri Knowledge, Wikipedia, and web sources.
If you do not see a Look Up option, Visual Lookup did not detect a recognizable subject. This is common with abstract photos, indoor scenes, or subjects not yet in Apple's training data.
What Visual Lookup Can Identify
| Category | What It Shows | Accuracy |
|---|---|---|
| Plants & flowers | Species name, care tips, Wikipedia link | Very high |
| Dogs | Breed name, temperament, size | Excellent (175+ breeds) |
| Cats | Breed name and characteristics | Very high |
| Birds | Species name, range, migration | High |
| Insects & spiders | Species name, whether dangerous | Moderate |
| Landmarks | Name, location, historical context | Very high (major landmarks) |
| Famous artwork | Title, artist, museum, year | Very high |
| Food dishes | Dish name, cuisine type, recipes | High |
Visual Lookup vs. Google Lens
Both Visual Lookup and Google Lens identify objects in photos, but they work differently. Visual Lookup is built into iOS and processes images on-device — your photos are never sent to Apple's servers. Google Lens sends the image to Google's cloud for processing, which gives it a broader knowledge base but raises privacy considerations.
In practice, Google Lens tends to identify more obscure subjects and products, while Visual Lookup integrates more seamlessly with iOS — results appear inside the Photos app without switching to another app or browser.
How Visual Lookup Connects to Live Text
Visual Lookup and Live Text are complementary features that both activate from the info panel of a photo. While Visual Lookup identifies the subject of the image (what is it?), Live Text reads any text that appears in the image (what does it say?). Both can be active on the same photo — a photo of a restaurant menu, for example, might trigger Live Text to copy the text and Visual Lookup to identify the cuisine type.
Tips for Better Visual Lookup Results
- Shoot in good light: Visual Lookup performs best on well-lit, sharp photos. Blurry or low-light images return fewer results.
- Fill the frame: If your subject is small in the frame, crop the photo before running Visual Lookup so the subject fills more of the image.
- Try multiple angles: If the first photo does not trigger a lookup, try a photo from a different angle or distance.
- Use it on old photos: Visual Lookup works on photos already in your library, not just new ones. Try it on old nature photos or travel shots to identify subjects retroactively.
- Combine with Photo Cutout: After identifying a subject with Visual Lookup, use Photo Cutout to lift it from the background.
What Visual Lookup Cannot Do
Visual Lookup has important limitations to be aware of:
- It cannot identify private individuals by face — Apple deliberately excludes facial recognition from Visual Lookup for privacy reasons.
- It cannot identify most consumer products (laptops, shoes, furniture) — Google Lens is better for shopping-related lookups.
- It does not identify cars by make and model reliably.
- Results depend on internet connectivity — the on-device recognition triggers the lookup, but additional information is pulled from the web.
For related photo features, see our guide on iPhone photo search tips to find any photo in your library instantly.
Identify, Then Organize Your Photos
After discovering what is in your photos with Visual Lookup, you may find a lot of duplicates and blurry shots worth deleting. Swype Photo Cleaner helps you quickly clear out the clutter.
Free · iPhone · iOS 16+ · 100% on-device, zero uploads
Free · iPhone · iOS 16+