iOS 17 Photos Features: Pet Recognition, Recipe Identification, One-Tap Crop and More

With the iOS 17 Photos and Camera apps, Apple added several features that make the apps more pleasant to use. Visual Look Up can recognize more than ever, including various mystery symbols you see in your daily life, plus the ‌Photos‌ app will detect your pets and put them in their own album.

iOS 17 General Photos App Feature
This guide highlights all of the new iOS 17 ‌Photos‌ and Camera app features.

Pet Recognition

In addition to people, the ‌Photos‌ app can recognize specific animals so you can have your pets automatically sorted into albums. Accordingly, the People album has been renamed the "People & Pets" album.

ios 17 pets photos
The pet recognition feature works on cats and dogs, and Apple says that people recognition has also improved.

Visual Look Up

Apple gave Visual Look Up some major updates. For a recap, Visual Look Up is the name of the feature that lets you get more information about the subject of a photo when you tap on the information button in the ‌Photos‌ app.

visual lookup recipes
For images of food, the iPhone will identify what's in the photo and present recipes sourced from the web. A whole range of symbols can now be recognized, from street signs to dashboard icons to the laundry instructions you see on clothing tags. If you take a picture of one of these symbols and then tap for info, the ‌iPhone‌ will be able to tell you what it means.

ios 17 visual lookup laundry symbols close up
You can also use the long press on an image gesture to pull the subject from the background of an image to look up what it is, if it is compatible with Visual Look Up.

ios 17 visual lookup background subject
Finally, Visual Look Up can be used in videos. You can pause a video on any frame and tap on the info button to look up what's in the video.

One-Tap Crop

When you zoom into an image in the ‌Photos‌ app, you can tap on the "Crop" button in the upper right corner to crop into the zoom without having to open up the photo editing interface.

ios 17 crop photos app

Photos Interface Changes

In the photo editing interface, the Cancel and Done buttons have been moved to the top of the display, and all of the tool icons have text descriptions to explain what they do.

photos ui comparison

iOS 16 on left, iOS 17 on right

Camera Leveling

A new level option in iOS 17 adds a horizontal line to the Camera app so you can make sure that landscape shots are lined up and level before capturing an image.

ios 17 camera level

QR Code Updates

While the ‌iPhone‌'s Camera app has been able to read QR codes since iOS 11, iOS 17 fixes an interface that has been irritating for quite some time. Rather than the link for a QR code popping up in the middle of the display, it now shows up at the bottom of the screen so it's easier to tap.

qr code ios 17

Cinematic Mode

Apple added a Cinematic API for third-party apps, which will allow photo and video apps to incorporate Cinematic mode video playback and editing.

Animated Stickers

With the remove subject from background tool, you can turn any Live Photo into an animated sticker that can be used in Messages and other apps.

ios 17 stickers create
Just long press on the subject in a photo and then choose the "Add Sticker" option. From there, you can add effects like a white sticker outline, a "puffy" sticker effect, glitter, and more.

This feature also works with any photo if you just want a still image.

Screenshot Updates

If you take a screenshot in iOS 17, you'll see a Save to ‌Photos‌ option that saves the full page of the screenshot as an image. Previously, the feature for capturing a full page screenshot would only save it as a PDF.

ios 17 screenshot image full

Read More

More information on all of the new features in the iOS 17 update can be found in our iOS 17 roundup.

Related Forums: iOS 17, iPadOS 17

Popular Stories

iOS 26 Feature

iOS 26.1 to iOS 26.4 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Saturday October 18, 2025 11:00 am PDT by
iOS 26 was released last month, but the software train never stops, and iOS 26.1 beta testing is already underway. So far, iOS 26.1 makes both Apple Intelligence and Live Translation on compatible AirPods available in additional languages, and it includes some other minor changes across the Apple Music, Calendar, Photos, Clock, and Safari apps. More features and changes will follow in future ...
iphone air thickness

Apple Said to Cut iPhone Air Production Amid Underwhelming Sales

Friday October 17, 2025 8:29 am PDT by
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec). The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
ios 26 1 liquid glass opaque

iOS 26.1 Beta 4 Lets Users Control Liquid Glass Transparency with New Toggle

Monday October 20, 2025 10:57 am PDT by
With the fourth betas of iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS 26.1, Apple has introduced a new setting that's designed to allow users to customize the look of Liquid Glass. The toggle lets users select from a clear look for Liquid Glass, or a tinted look. Clear is the current Liquid Glass design, which is more transparent and shows the background underneath buttons, bars, and menus, while tinted ...
iOS 26

iOS 26.0.2 Update for iPhones Coming Soon

Friday October 17, 2025 7:35 am PDT by
Apple's software engineers continue to internally test iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. iOS 26.0.2 will be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet. The update will likely be released by the end of next week. Last month, Apple released iOS 26.0.1,...
iPhone Siri Glow

Some Apple Employees Have 'Concerns' About iOS 26.4's Revamped Siri

Sunday October 19, 2025 7:39 am PDT by
iOS 26.4 is expected to introduce a revamped version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence, but not everyone is satisfied with how well it works. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said some of Apple's software engineers have "concerns" about the overhauled Siri's performance. However, he did not provide any specific details about the shortcomings. iOS 26.4 will...
Apple iPad Pro hero M5

New iPad Pro Has Six Key Upgrades Beyond M5 Chip

Saturday October 18, 2025 10:57 am PDT by
While the new iPad Pro's headline feature is the M5 chip, the device has some other changes, including N1 and C1X chips, faster storage speeds, and more. With the M5 chip, the new iPad Pro has up to a 20% faster CPU and up to a 40% faster GPU compared to the previous model with the M4 chip, according to Geekbench 6 results. Keep in mind that 256GB and 512GB configurations have a 9-core CPU,...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

Apple's Next Rumored Products: New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and More

Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year. The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
m4 macbook air blue

M5 MacBook Air Coming Spring 2026 With M5 Mac Studio and Mac Mini in Development

Thursday October 16, 2025 3:57 pm PDT by
Apple plans to launch MacBook Air models equipped with the new M5 chip in spring 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple is also working on M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models that will come early in the year. Neither the MacBook Pro models nor the MacBook Air models are expected to get design changes, with Apple focusing on simple chip upgrades. In the case of the MacBook Pro, a m...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

New 14-Inch MacBook Pro Has Two Key Upgrades Beyond the M5 Chip

Thursday October 16, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with an M5 chip, and there are two key storage-related upgrades beyond that chip bump. First, Apple says the new 14-inch MacBook Pro offers up to 2× faster SSD performance than the equivalent previous-generation model, so read and write speeds should get a significant boost. Apple says it is using "the latest storage technology," ...

Top Rated Comments

BenGoren Avatar
28 months ago
What I want isn’t just a one-axis level, but two- or even three-axis. This is especially important for architecture; you could have the horizon level, but still be left with “keystone” distortion. (Traditionally, you’d use a view camera or a “tilt / shift” lens on an SLR, but if you have enough pixels, cropping is optically equivalent.)

And with three-axis, you could (for example) take a photo of a painting hanging on the wall perfectly square to the wall, no distortions whatsoever.

For bonus points … offer a mode where you only have to get “close enough,” and the phone uses the gyroscope information (and maybe a bit of AI) to digitally finish the correction. Essentially, a digital gyro-stabilized gimbal locked to square and level. (Yes, with some cropping — not avoidable, and we’ve got megapixels to spare.)

b&
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
klasma Avatar
28 months ago
This is a nitpick, but “adjust” isn’t much of an explanation.

Attachment Image
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jz0309 Avatar
28 months ago
I will put pet ecognition to its test on my 2 cats - they're both black ... will report here after release
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pinkyyy ?? Avatar
28 months ago

I don't know how others feel? Is it just me that feels like the software this year is more intriguing than maybe what the hardware will be?
I feel the same ! iOS 17 seems very promising with all the new features and the improvements. Hopefully it’ll be more stable too. The iPhone 15 rumors on the other hand.. not really. But they’re still rumors after all. I guess we will have to wait and see what it’ll actually be like. Only a few days left from now !
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lazyrighteye Avatar
28 months ago

For bonus points … offer a mode where you only have to get “close enough,” and the phone uses the gyroscope information (and maybe a bit of AI) to digitally finish the correction. Essentially, a digital gyro-stabilized gimbal locked to square and level. (Yes, with some cropping — not avoidable, and we’ve got megapixels to spare.)
This seems not only doable but a feature I, and likely others, would dig. Approved! ?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
deesedani Avatar
28 months ago
I wish they would sort out pictures in recent, so here is my issue/problem I move pictures from recent to Albums so I can organise myself, the problem is they are still in recent, surely recent should ONLY have photos that are NOT in an album, this would be a dream feature for me. I don’t know what is in albums now and what isn’t, I don’t have a huge amount of photos only about 5,000 but like to sort myself out. Even if the picture had a symbol like a STAR to say it’s in an album that would atleast help the matter, come on Apple this is such an easy and simple fix, has no one at the office thought of this fix
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)