Apple Visual Intelligence still has nothing on a circle to look for

I could be this boring friend – the one who always wants to check something. I generally do not try to be unpleasant, I just want to make sure that I get the right information, especially when things are so easily faked at the moment (sorry, it’s true). Honestly, I have always been in this way, and I think it started with a strong dependence on the Google goal.

Seriously, however, I used the identifier based on Google’s camera for everything. Unknown shoes? Google Lens. Strange plant? Google Lens. Dog I have never seen before? I will usually ask its owner, but you have the idea. Then, Google transferred its default identification assistant by surrounding to search, stressing what was more on your screen, and he launched me for a loop. I had a hard time adopting it in the same way, then the arrival of Apple Visual Intelligence made me ask me if I needed Google at all.

At first, the answer was definitely yes. Apple Intelligence fell out of the door, and some say it still has trouble. Visual Intelligence, however, has invented during the year since its launch, and I think it is finally ready to cause trouble in Google, so I put both in front of the head to discover it.

I do not know when we settled on it, but apparently, the color of the AI ​​is a rainbow-unless you ask Samsung, who thinks it’s blue. The good news, however, is that I like color pop on visual intelligence and the circle to search. It is distinctive and facilitates the fact of saying what you are looking for.

In other words, if Apple or Google had settled on a color for their respective screen search tools, it would have been good. You will know when the function was active and be perfectly capable of selecting an object on your screen. However, you always run the risk that it corresponds to the main color of your image or your article and that you are accidentally based with the background. Then all accessibility bets are disabled.

Apart from the similar colored patterns, I have to give a little more Apple and Google credit for their additional checks. Finding what is on your screen is one thing, but sometimes you need more than an image. In the case of visual intelligence, you get a button to open a dialogue with Chatgpt and another to take a photo to search. They are fine, but they show signs that visual intelligence is always a work in progress.

Conversely, Google has controls to use Google Translate or search for music, similar to a trigger reading manual. If that is not enough, you can press the search zone and let Google use all of your display to search for results, which works better if you try to find this perfect view that you found in downloaded wallpaper – maybe from one of our Wednesday roundups.

Anyway, let’s move on to the way these two tools really work.

I jumped in my circle tests to search and visual intelligence with great hopes. I already knew that Circle To Search could do a lot, and I thought that Apple had probably taken a new tip or two in iOS 26. So, I kept an eye on a few everyday scenarios where I could need to look for something, then I put each test – twice.

Each time, I started with visual intelligence as a new competitor in the hope of winning. First of all, easy: a chance to teach me a racing shoe that I have already carried. I opened a written criticism and triggered visual intelligence via the usual screenshot gesture (pressure from the power and volume pimples). He quickly opened a page of similar images and some links on the right side. Unfortunately, he listed an incorrect shoe – but visually similar – in front of the one I asked for.

On the other hand, Circle To Search gave me a link at the top of the similar shoe page, and this time it was the right one. Between the simple gesture of pressing the navigation pill and having to press only the shoe to search for it, the Google tool is gone brilliant. But, as I said, it was an easy start, so let’s be a little more difficult.

I then moved to a semi-formal wedding inspiration before a celebration in Philly in a few weeks. I opened an article which, in my opinion, showed costumes, found the first image and decided to seek the male fashion represented there. This time, the two assistants gave me identical results, pulling similar combinations with prices from all over the Internet – still no daylight to separate them.

But when I jumped on Instagram to browse a few new lawn football crampons, Circle To Search finally bent down its muscles. I opened a motionless image of a studded Nike and I put pressure for more information before a next Gazon season. The Google tool not only told me which shoe I looked at – the Phantom 6 low – but also the technology it uses in the upper and intermediate sole, and changes compared to the previous ghost model. Visual intelligence? Well, it showed me more photos of the same cleat.

For another visual example, I remembered my colleague, Rita, recently putting a circle to search for additional research tools – namely her ability to find songs. So I pulled one of my favorite live performances, a clip by Lucy Dacus performing at the National Gallery of Ireland, and I asked Visual Intelligence to search for it. On his credit, Apple managed to find more fixed images of performance and showing them to me, but I felt that I already needed to know at least a little about performance since I was looking for the image rather than audio.

Circle To Search, on the other hand, has a button specifically to find music. When I frozen Lucy and his guitar under the rainbow interface of Google, all I had to do was press the small music note and wait for Circle to search. He then obtained results like where I could look at the whole performance, what to expect in terms of songs, and even mentioning his duet with Hozier later in the clip – much more than Apple never tried to give me.

As I said, I entered this comparison with a fairly open mind. I did not know if visual intelligence would be able to follow the circle to search, but I discovered fairly quickly. Regarding the bases, the Apple Visual Intelligence is there, or especially there. He can watch a racing shoe or a clear brown suit and finding me other photos of the same thing.

However, as soon as I ask more, he stumbles. As soon as I try to seek something other than an image, visual intelligence does not know how to respond. As soon as I try to use the additional buttons to search for a search according to an image or a type for chatgpt, he freezes and asks me what I would like to know again and again. Cut to search? No problem of this type, he answered me correctly with additional information each time.

So, despite my greatest hopes for the last series of updates supplied by Apple, I am still not impressed. I want to think that Apple is only a step to have features equally with its Android rivals, but this is not the case. And, until he catches up, I will stick to the operating system that I know and that I love.