Apple’s new iPhone 16e, which debuted on Wednesday, offers support for Visual Intelligence despite its lack of a Camera Control button. This is a good thing for iPhone 15 Pro owners, as it means the Apple Intelligence feature is also coming to their handsets via a future update
Apple has told Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber that Visual Intelligence is on the way to the iPhone 15 Pro “in a future software update.” Like the iPhone 16e, the iPhone 15 Pro lacks a Camera Control button, but the feature will be able to be launched in the Control Center interface or via the Action button once the update is available.
On iPhone 16 models, the Visual Intelligence feature allows owners to use the camera to learn more information about the world around you. The feature can also read text aloud, translate text, summarize text, perform Google searches for items, and more.
On the iPhone 16 lineup, the feature is activated via the Camera Control button, which is an iPhone 16-only feature. While it seemed like the extra button was a requirement to activate the feature, but the new iPhone 16e doesn’t have the button. Instead, Visual Intelligence can be assigned to the new device’s Action button or enabled via Control Center.
While Apple would not confirm whether the update that will enable the feature is iOS 18.4, although that release seems likely to include the new feature. Apple on Wednesday updated its website to indicate that iOS 18.4 will be released publicly in early April.
