In December, Apple released iOS 18.2, which included Mail Categories and more capabilities for iPhones, including Apple Intelligence for select newer models. In September, however, Apple launched iOS 18, which includes a feature that attempts to improve picture discovery in your photo library by sending photo data from your iPhone to Apple’s servers. This capability, which Apple refers to as Enhanced Visual Search, is activated by default.
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“Enhanced Visual Search in Photos allows you to search for photos using landmarks or points of interest,” Apple stated on its website. “Your device privately matches places in your photos to a global index Apple maintains on our servers.”
Parts of a photo that may include a landmark are encrypted and sent to Apple’s servers, but the entire image is not sent, according to a research article from Apple. Additionally, your encrypted data is just one piece of trash data that isn’t connected to any of your or anybody else’s photos.
After the data reaches the Apple server, it just works with the encrypted data and does not decode it. In the event that the server determines whether the
Visual Search Here’s how to disable the function that sends your photo data to Apple’s servers. It’s crucial to remember that your images will still be sent to Apple’s servers if you have an iCloud account to save pictures or backup your iPhone data. That won’t cease if you disable this feature.
How to turn off Visual Search Enhancement
Improved Visual Search in iPhone Settings.
Apple/CNET Screenshot
1. Go to Settings.
2. Select Apps.
3. Select Pictures.
4. Tap the toggle next to Enhanced Visual Search.
In order to assist you in finding images on your iPhone, your iPhone will no longer transmit encrypted photo data to Apple’s servers. That also means searching for photographs on your iPhone will certainly suffer. To activate the feature again, adhere to
the previously mentioned steps.
See our iOS 18 cheat sheet and what you need to know about iOS 18.2 and 18.1 for additional information on iOS 18. You may also see what iOS 18.3 might bring to your iPhone.