iPhone screenshots are getting three powerful new features in iOS 26

Screenshots in iOS 26 are changing in a big way, with new powers that will provide more reasons than ever to take a screenshot on your iPhone. Here’s what’s new.

Visual intelligence offers new reasons to take screenshots in iOS 26

Historically, there have been two main reasons to take a screenshot on your iPhone:

1. To save an image for later
2. Or to share an image with someone else

But iOS 26 is going to add three more to the list.

That’s because on Apple Intelligence-compatible devices, screenshots are getting a visual intelligence upgrade in iOS 26 that adds three brand new capabilities.

Each visual intelligence feature lets you take action on a screenshot’s contents in different ways. Here’s what’s coming.

#1: Add to Calendar

Scroll across info for an upcoming event? In iOS 26, you can snap a screenshot and see a new option at the bottom: Add to Calendar.

Rather than needing to manually add events to your calendar, this new button will extract the details of the captured event and auto-populate a new calendar entry.

What’s left for you to do? Just tap to confirm.

#2: Image Search with Google, Etsy, more

Image Search is another powerful new screenshot tool in iOS 26.

Snap a screenshot and you’ll see an option in the bottom-right corner to do a search of similar images.

Often you’ll see Google powering this feature, but Apple says it’s even broader than that:

Users can…search Google, Etsy, or other supported apps to find similar images and products. If there’s an object a user is especially interested in, like a lamp, they can highlight it to search for that specific item or similar objects online.

Shopping is definitely going to be a popular use case for the new Image Search feature.

#3: Ask ChatGPT

Have a question about what’s in your screenshot? Now you can ask ChatGPT about it.

A new ‘Ask’ button in the bottom-left corner of the screenshot interface invokes OpenAI’s assistant. You can type out any question you’d like, and ChatGPT will analyze the image and respond accordingly.

There’s even an option to highlight a specific part of a screenshot that you want to ask ChatGPT about. No need to crop an image first to get a more precise response.

Screenshot features in iOS 26: wrap-up

Visual intelligence has grown increasingly useful as a camera feature, but integrating the Apple Intelligence feature into screenshots should make it far more popular.

Plus, if this past year’s steady improvement of visual intelligence in iOS 18 is any indication, we’re likely to see new iOS 26 screenshot powers added over time, too.

What do you think of the new screenshot features in iOS 26? Let us know in the comments.

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