Visual Lookup US only?

[Nozuka]

So i was wondering why the new visual lookup feature was not working for me.
( https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212630 )

Apparently it's only enabled if your region is set to US? (Had to google it, to find that out)

Seems like a weird restriction and Apple doesn't mention it anywhere..

Is this connected to CSAM?

 

[Ansath]

We’ve been discussing it in the 15.0 beta threads, and the 15.0 public release thread pinned to the top of the iOS 15 board.

It’s US only and nothing to do with CSAM at all. It’s no different to other features that start off US only.

 

[zobby]

It’s working for me. U.K. based. iPhone 11 Pro max. iOS 15 installed last night.

 

[theadz01]

I am in UK and it doesn’t work unless I change my phone’s region to the US. iOS 15 has got to be one of the most lacklustre releases ever.

 

[deadlock]

Been running the Betas and didn't realise it existed until some of the reviews. Dug deeper and nothing on my UK region set phone. From at least one review it does recognise UK landmarks, but presumably on US phones.

Shame as it looks neat.

 

[Ansath]

It’s working for me. U.K. based. iPhone 11 Pro max. iOS 15 installed last night.

What region Is your phone set to? You’re physically in the UK? No VPN active to put you in the US?

If you’re physically in the UK and your region in settings is in the UK, you are the only person so far, please evidence accordingly.

 

[rodc271]

In the UK and tried setting Region and Language to US English and Visual Look Up not recognising anything.

Live Text is working.

No mention of a restriction on Apple UK site, and mentioned as a feature.

Update

Just been searching through some old pictures and finally found a couple taken in Wales in June that show the Visual Look Up i* icon.

Language and Region set to English UK.

 

[Shifts]

Just got my iPhone 13 Pro yesterday and this was the one feature I was excited to play around with. One of the reasons I even upgraded. And here I find out it is limited to certain regions.

🤬

 

[Squillace]

Works flawlessly on my iPhone 12 Pro in Switzerland.

What I don't have, however, is that feature that recognizes pets and flowers.

 

[Shifts]

What I don't have, however, is that feature that recognizes pets and flowers.

…which means you don’t have Visual Lookup, unless landmarks are working?

You have Live Text is my guess and that seems to work everywhere.

 

[Squillace]

…which means you don’t have Visual Lookup, unless landmarks are working?

You have Live Text is my guess and that seems to work everywhere.

Oh, you're right, sorry. I misunderstood the feature name...

 

[cynics]

Just got my iPhone 13 Pro yesterday and this was the one feature I was excited to play around with. One of the reasons I even upgraded. And here I find out it is limited to certain regions.

🤬

Is it just an iOS 15 feature? For iPhone or was that your upgrade?

You aren't missing much unless you need to know the wrong breed of every cat/dog you see. Or the wrong species of plant.

EDIT: I should say that, however it identifies my house plant in my bedroom incorrectly and wrong breed for my cat in certain pictures.

Anyway when we get done BETA testing it we'll send it your way...

 

[Itinj24]

Is it just an iOS 15 feature? For iPhone or was that your upgrade?

You aren't missing much unless you need to know the wrong breed of every cat/dog you see. Or the wrong species of plant.

EDIT: I should say that, however it identifies my house plant in my bedroom incorrectly and wrong breed for my cat in certain pictures.

Anyway when we get done BETA testing it we'll send it your way...

Very surprisingly though, this feature got the breed of my dogs correct. What’s surprising about it is that the place we adopted one of them from along with a few veterinarians and self proclaimed dog experts had no clue what they were. We got many guesses as to what they could be but they turned out to be Carolina Dogs (American Dingos) and we actually got them certified as such through a lengthy process. If only Visual Lookup was around eight years ago lol.

 

[Shifts]

Is it just an iOS 15 feature? For iPhone or was that your upgrade?

You aren't missing much unless you need to know the wrong breed of every cat/dog you see. Or the wrong species of plant.

I have seen the Android version of this recently and I was very impressed. And now have understood that the Apple version will be severely lacking in comparison. Well Android will never be an option…

Visual Lookup is both a hardware and firmware upgrade in my case. Had an iPhone 8 and happily installed iOS 15 thinking I would get this feature. Quickly realised it was only for newer iPhone models.

Realising I was missing out on many other features as well, I decided to upgrade to an iPhone 13 Pro, really looking forward to sweet features like this one. And no.

It is not the end of the world, and it is nice to have a spanking new smartphone, but it is getting tiring never receiving the full set of features, even years after the appear in other parts of the world. I pay the same (or more) and am getting a severely cut set of functionality, hardware and services.