Visual search is one of the new functions of iOS 15 which should allow precise identification of the content of an image. The Photos app knew how to identify a dog, but it can now tell you the breed of the animal. This novelty also makes it possible to identify the monuments photographed, the variety of a plant or even to obtain information on a book or a table photographed.
This novelty was presented without any restrictions, except material: as live text, it requires an iOS device with at least an Apple A12 chip. For the rest, everyone should be able to benefit from it and Apple did not report any incompatibility on its list of features of iOS 15. However, it never worked on our devices, so we thought delayed novelty.
As one reader pointed out to us, however, it has appeared on this page published by Apple which lists regional restrictions. Visual search is shown to be compatible only with Apple devices in English and set to the United States region. Clearly, it is only accessible to users in this country, which explains why we have never seen it on our devices configured in France.
The addition of the visual search on this page appears to date from the evening of the keynote and this is to our knowledge the first time that such a restriction has been mentioned. The change seems very recent, the proof is this support sheet updated on September 24, last Friday, presents the function in French without mentioning any geographical limitation, as if it were available as of today.
Is this restriction temporary? It is possible, but it can be noted that the visual search has been removed from the main page of Apple’s website dedicated to iOS 15, which may be a sign that a cleanup is in progress and that the function will be reserved in the United States until further notice.
Finally, remember that you can choose to use your iPhone or iPad configured in English and in the United States. The change is made in the Settings, section “General” then “Language and region”. It is possible, but besides that the device must be in English, you will use American formats for everything, including the time in AM / PM and dates in a different order from ours. On the Photos app side, this change seems to be accompanied by a new indexing of the data, which does not allow me to confirm that the visual search is indeed activated on my iPhone.
Updated on 09/27/2021 08:46 : after a few minutes, the visual search function appeared on my iPhone configured in the United States. Here are some examples of “easy” elements correctly identified by the app:
Since the function is designed for another country, you will not always get the expected result, however the visual search can be surprising in some cases. Here, the book found is not the correct one, but the cover of the suggested one is visually very close and we can understand his mistake. As for the bridge, it is too minor to be identified by its name (Ténérez bridge), but the coordinates of the photo allow it to be positioned in the right place; on the other hand, the other photos have nothing to do with this specific bridge.
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