But what if you don't own an iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Pro, or you've decided to turn off Apple Intelligence? These features are still available thanks to Apple's data-detection technology -- Visual Intelligence just makes them more convenient. If you don't mind a few extra taps, you can get the same results on your iPhone.

Here's how to do the same things on any iPhone running iOS 18.3.

Identify plants and animals

With Visual Intelligence on an iPhone 16, press and hold the Camera Control button and point the camera at a plant or an animal you want to identify. If it recognizes the subject, a button will appear that reads something like, "Maybe rose." Tap the button for more information.

This type of detection has been a staple of the Photos app for several iOS generations. It used machine learning to identify images before Apple Intelligence was a thing. Here's how to use it:

1. Using the Camera app, take a photo of the plant or animal you want to identify.
2. Tap the thumbnail of that picture that appears in the corner of the screen to view the image.
3. Tap the Info (i) button.
4. If Photos recognizes the plant or animal, tap the Look Up [Item] button to view results and more information.

This approach identifies more than just plants and animals. It names landmarks, locations and scenes such as winter snow images. You can also go to the Photos app at any time and view information about a photo to see if identifiable items appear.

Add an event to the Calendar app

Did you get a mailer or see a poster advertising an upcoming event? Adding that non-digital information to your calendar involves numerous steps: Open the Calendar app on your phone, create a new event, type a name, edit the date and time and so on.

Visual Intelligence recognizes text and dates, bypassing all of that. Point it at the item listing the event. After a few seconds you should see a Create Event button that appears, then tap Schedule when the event details appear.

Like the ability to identify plants or animals, Visual Intelligence makes the process easier, but you can add an event in fewer steps than doing it manually. Here's how:

1. Use the Camera app to take a photo of the event details.
2. Tap the thumbnail of the picture you just took, or go to the Photos app and select it.
3. Tap the Detect Text button in the bottom-right corner of the image that indicates Photos has detected text in the image.
4. If the date and time is picked up right away, you should see an event button appear. If not, tap the date and choose Add to Calendar from the menu that appears.
5. Type a title for the event and tap Add.

Translate text in near-real time

Here's one that is especially helpful when traveling: The iPhone can translate text written in several languages. In fact, this is a case where using Visual Intelligence is actually a slower approach.

The next time you want to read a plaque or understand a restaurant menu, do the following:

1. Open the Camera app and point the lens at the text you want to translate. You don't need to actually take a picture (which is why this is faster than Visual Intelligence), but you can. If so, do the next steps in the Photos app.
2. Tap the Detect Text button to capture the text it recognized.
3. If the words are in a different language than yours (and if it's one that iOS supports), tap the Translate button that appears to view the translated text.

I don't want to suggest that Visual Intelligence isn't useful. It's currently limited to just iPhone 16 series models because it's activated by the Camera Control button, but you can get the same features with a different iPhone or iPad.

For more on what's new in iOS 18.3, discover 10 hidden features you should know about and all the things you can do with Camera Control.