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Visual Intelligence is Apple’s answer to Google Lens
Visual intelligence is one of the most exciting features of Apple Intelligence coming through with iOS 18.2. It’s Apple’s answer to the likes of Google Lens and is only available on the iPhone 16 series where it can be accessed directly from the Camera Control button.
All you have to do is point your camera at something you want to learn about and click the shutter. You’ll know Apple Intelligence is working because you’ll see a rainbow-colored flash.
Once you have the image captured, Visual Intelligence will tell you things like opening hours for a shop, reviews for a cafe or even what a sign in a foreign language says. While you can typically do this with an old fashioned image search, the seamless interaction of Visual Intelligence with your iPhone’s camera will hugely speed up this process.
Finally, if you snap a picture of something with a lot of text in it, Visual Intelligence can generate a quick summary for you to help save time.
Genmoji: A personal way to communicate
Genmoji is a brilliant addition to the Apple ecosystem. It uses AI image generation technology for the specific purpose of letting users craft their own custom emojis. You can then send them in a chat as an emoji reaction, sticker or tapback.
There are now hundreds of different emojis available through the emoji keyboard, but with Genmoji you don’t need to find one, or even a combination, that fit your requirements — you can just make exactly what you want. For example, craft a slice of pizza with bananas on top or an emoji version of yourself playing guitar.
Available on any device capable of running Apple Intelligence, the genmoji is generated entirely ‘on device’, meaning no information is sent out to the cloud. Your phone, laptop or iPad does all the hard work which also makes it much faster and accessible.
There are limitations though as Apple has implemented guardrails preventing the creation of potentially harmful genmojis. Basically, if it wouldn’t be available on a normal emoji keyboard then you probably can’t generate it using Genmoji.
How to install iOS 18.2
The first thing you’re going to want to know is how do you actually get the iOS 18.2 update on your iPhone? Luckily, the process couldn’t be simpler. The most efficient way to make sure you’re in line to get it is to turn on automatic updates in your iPhone’s Setting menu. Simply go to Settings > General > Software Update on a compatible device.
If you want a full step-by-step breakdown, we’ve got you covered. Just follow our how-to guide here which includes screenshots walking you through the process.
