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In iOS 26, Apple has expanded its Visual Intelligence feature from the camera lens to what’s on your screen. Now, you can use Visual Intelligence to ask about what you’re seeing on your iPhone’s display, to add events to your Calendar, or to look up images using Google (similar to Google’s Circle to Search). All of this is quite cool, but it also comes with a redesigned, full-screen preview that pops up whenever you take a screenshot.
When all you want to do is take a quick screenshot, maybe while you’re playing a game, seeing this big splash screen and all its new buttons can get annoying fast. Plus, you might not want Apple Intelligence to see what’s on your screen (which it will now automatically do), no matter how useful these updates might turn out to be.
Thankfully, you can disable the new splash screen and go back to the old thumbnail style screenshot previews instead. Plus, when needed, you’ll still be able to trigger Visual Intelligence, even when using thumbnails.
What you can do with Visual Intelligence in iOS 26
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
Since the iOS 18.2 update, you’ve been able to use ChatGPT to ask questions about what’s on your screen. But with iOS 26, Apple introduced Automatic Visual Look Up to the mix. This new feature automatically analyzes your screenshots the second they’re captured. Then, it pulls in relevant actionable information and adds it below the screenshot.
For example, if you screenshot is of an invitation to a party, it will show you a one-tap button to add it to your calendar. If your screenshot is of a website, you’ll see a link to go there directly. Plus, there’s a feature that lets you highlight any image to find similar images on Google, as if you were using Circle to Search or Google Lens. This is Apple’s justification for expanding screenshot previews to take up your whole screen, but it adds an extra step to actually saving your screenshots.
How to disable the full-screen screenshots
If you stick with full-screen previews for taking screenshots, which are now the default, you’ll have to tap twice to actually save a screenshot every single time you take one. First, you’ll have to tap the checkmark button at the top of the screen, and then choose Save to Photos.
Thankfully, Apple has an option to disable the new screenshot splash screen. To go back to the old method for taking screenshots, go to Settings > General > Screen Capture and disable the Full-Screen Previews option.
What do you think so far?
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
Now, when you take a screenshot, you’ll see the familiar thumbnail preview in the bottom-left corner of the screen. Even better, you’ll still be free to tap the preview to open the full-screen view, which will then show all your Visual Intelligence suggestions.
How to disable automatic Visual Intelligence in screenshots (or altogether)
If you’re privacy conscious, there are two ways you can go about disabling Visual Intelligence. The first is to disable Automatic Lookup, which scans your screenshot as soon as you take it.
To disable this feature, go to Settings > General > Screen Capture and disable the Automatic Visual Look Up option.
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
After you do this, those automatic Visual Intelligence suggestions will disappear. But the options to chat with ChatGPT, and to highlight to search for images, will still be there. At least these aren’t automatic, and without your consent or express action, no data will go to Apple’s servers.
But you can disable these options as well by disabling Apple Intelligence completely. To do that, go to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri and disable the Apple Intelligence feature.