From hardware feature to software mode
Visual Intelligence was introduced with iPhone 16 as an exclusive feature of the Camera Control button, making it inaccessible to iPhone 15 Pro and other Apple Intelligence-compatible devices. With iOS 27, MacRumors confirms that Apple moves Visual Intelligence directly into the Camera app, where it sits alongside existing modes — Photo, Video, Portrait, Panorama — as a standalone option.
The new interface, described by Bloomberg ahead of the keynote and confirmed in Apple's official materials, includes a Siri mode within the Camera app that combines Visual Intelligence with Siri AI's conversational capabilities. In practice, the user opens the camera, selects the dedicated mode, and can ask questions about what is in frame, identify objects, read text, scan QR codes, or launch a contextual search.
Why this matters
The move eliminates the asymmetry that had confined Visual Intelligence to a single iPhone model. Bringing it as a software mode in the Camera app means making it available to a much larger user base, including iPads and Macs via the device camera. The risk is that the proliferation of Camera app modes — already more crowded than before — makes the interface less intuitive for non-technical users.