How to Identify Objects With Your iPhone (2024)

How to Identify Objects With Your iPhone (1)

Having a camera on your phone opens up a world of possibilities. The iPhone can identify objects from your photos, saving you the hassle of looking things up yourself. It’s a pretty cool trick to know.

iOS 15 introduced a feature in the Photos app called “Visual Lookup.” After you take a photo, the app can identify various objects. You don’t have to do anything special, it just happens.

RELATED: What's New in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey

If you haven’t taken a photo of the object yet, do that first. Then, open the “Photos” app on your iPhone.

How to Identify Objects With Your iPhone (2)

Select a photo that contains something you’d like to identify.

How to Identify Objects With Your iPhone (3)

If you see a little star on the “i” information icon, that means Photos has identified something in the photo. Tap the “i” icon.

How to Identify Objects With Your iPhone (4)

You’ll see another little icon on top of the photo, indicating what has been identified. You can tap that to open up search results.

How to Identify Objects With Your iPhone (5)

You’ll now see some results from Siri.

How to Identify Objects With Your iPhone (6)

That’s all there is to it! This doesn’t work for every single photo, it just depends on whether the Photos app identifies something in the photo or not. There’s no way to manually force it to scan a photo. Still, it’s handy when it works.

RELATED: How to Stop Apple from Scanning Your iPhone Photos

How to Identify Objects With Your iPhone (2024)

FAQs

How can I identify objects with my phone? ›

Point the camera at the item you are interested in, and tap on it. If you don't see the Google Lens icon, make sure you have the app downloaded from the Play Store. Some phones allow you to access the feature directly from the camera app. For example, on the LG G8 ThinQ, just open the camera app and double tap A.I.

How can I identify an object from a photo? ›

Search with an image saved on your device
  1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google app .
  2. At the bottom, tap Discover.
  3. In the search bar, tap Google Lens .
  4. Take or upload a photo to use for your search: ...
  5. Select the area you want to use for your search: ...
  6. At the bottom, scroll to find your search results.

How do you identify an unknown object? ›

Google Lens: For Identifying Everything

By uploading a picture or using the camera in real-time, Google Lens is an impressive identifier of a wide range of items including animal breeds, plants, flowers, branded gadgets, logos, and even rings and other jewelry.

Can iPhone scan objects? ›

iPhones have a lot of cool technology that makes them excellent 3D scanners, including good cameras for photogrammetry and lidar technology for larger objects like cars or the inside of your home. Photogrammetry is the best way to create a fully realized 3D model if you want that model to only exist digitally.

Can my iPhone identify bugs? ›

Open the Picture Insect app and point your phone camera toward the insect/pest, and you will have your puzzles solved. Get the Picture Insect app today and join a community of over 3 million insect enthusiasts worldwide. - Instantly identify butterflies, moths, and spiders with AI photo recognition technology.

How can I find out what an object is? ›

On Android, open the Google Lens app and you'll be able to look through images already on your phone or tap Search with your camera.

Can I scan an object with my phone? ›

Luckily, there are a few 3D scanning apps for Android devices that make it easy to capture object data. Here, we'll show you the best apps out there—each with its own strengths and use cases—that will make it easier than ever to create your next awesome product design.

Is there an app to identify unknown objects? ›

Google Lens: identify objects and learn about them

Google Lens image recognition software allows you to identify and learn about most things you come across in your daily life: buildings, gadgets, cars, articles of clothing, plants, animal breeds, jewelry, and even artwork. A notable exception is people.

Is there a camera that identifies objects? ›

Google Lens, a tool that utilizes smartphone cameras to recognize objects, is now available to iOS users. The rollout began this week and will continue over the next several weeks.

What app takes a picture and tells you what it is? ›

With CamFind, understanding the world around you has never been easier. Simply take a picture of any object and CamFind uses mobile visual search technology to tell you what it is. The CamFind app provides fast, accurate results with no typing necessary.

How do you take a picture of something and search it on iPhone? ›

Search with an image saved on your device
  1. On your iPhone and iPad, open the Google app .
  2. In the search bar, tap Google Lens .
  3. Take or upload a photo to use for your search: ...
  4. Select how you want to search: ...
  5. At the bottom, scroll to find your search results.
  6. To refine your search, tap Add to your search.

Is there an app where you can take a picture of something and it identifies it? ›

Google Lens: identify objects and learn about them.

Can you take a picture of an item and find it online? ›

Simply take a picture of any object and CamFind uses mobile visual search technology to tell you what it is. The CamFind app provides fast, accurate results with no typing necessary. Snap a picture, learn more. That's it.

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