iOS 18.3 brings two upgrades to Camera Control on your iPhone 16

12 hours ago 3

iOS 18.3 is coming very soon, as the RC beta was just released today. And per the update’s release notes, it will bring two upgrades to the iPhone 16’s Camera Control button and visual intelligence.

Visual intelligence can do two new things in iOS 18.3

In iOS 18.2, Apple brought visual intelligence to Camera Control on iPhone 16 and 16 Pro.

The feature lets you long-press the Camera Control button to open a special AI-powered camera mode for interacting with the world around you.

Now, visual intelligence is gaining two new features in iOS 18.3:

You can now add an event to your calendar when your iPhone detects dates on posters or flyers
And visual intelligence can also now identify plants and animals

Both of these features have been demoed by Apple in the past, but iOS 18.3 is the first time they’re shipping for Camera Control.

Growing tie-ins with Apple apps show Camera Control’s usefulness

Visual intelligence currently relies heavily on ChatGPT and Google for lots of its information, but one of the most powerful uses I’ve experienced is when it provides tie-ins with Apple apps.

For example, you can already point your iPhone at a restaurant or business to pull up a Maps listing for the location.

Easily adding an event to the Calendar app is another great example of this. And I hope we see more such integrations in the months and years ahead to make visual intelligence more of an asset.

Outside of these Camera Control upgrades, iOS 18.3 also includes changes to Apple Intelligence notification summaries and some bug fixes, including for a pesky Calculator bug.

Do you use visual intelligence with the iPhone’s Camera Control? Are you excited for these changes? Let us know in the comments.