This iPhone trick will make doing laundry easier— how to use Visual Look Up to get on top of your clothes pile

iPhone 15 Pro on a tree stump
(Image credit: Gerald Lynch / Future / Apple)

Did you know your iPhone can help with your laundry? Using Visual Look Up on iOS 17 can help you get on top of that massive clothes pile in your laundry basket thanks to its ability to read labels.

You know the ones, the complex labels found on clothing with icons that nobody really understands? Yeah, those ones. Your iPhone can take away all that head-scratching and tell you exactly what they mean in a split second.

Here’s how to use your iPhone to read your laundry labels in just a few simple steps.

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How to read laundry labels with iPhone

laundry iPhone visual look up

(Image credit: Future / Apple)
  1. Take a photo of a laundry label on a piece of clothing
  2. Open Photos and select that photo
  3. Swipe up and Tap Look Up Washing Care
  4. Your iPhone will explain every symbol on the label

That’s all there is to it, simple and efficient. You can use this same Visual Look Up tool to look up species of plants, bugs, and even give you information about the food you’re eating in a restaurant — it’s seriously impressive.

iOS 18 is fast approaching and you can already download the beta now. Later this year, when it officially launches, the new software update will add huge AI improvements thanks to Apple Intelligence. One of those improvements will be the ability to ask Siri for information on photos you see on your smartphone’s screen which will allow for even more in-depth photo identification thanks to services like ChatGPT.

For those who don’t have access to the best iPhones, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, which are the only iPhones compatible with Apple Intelligence, luckily you don’t need anything fancy to use Visual Look Up. So whether you own an iPhone 12 mini or an iPhone 15, you can read laundry labels on iOS 17 as well as take advantage of Visual Look Up’s other awesome capabilities.

John-Anthony Disotto
Editor

John-Anthony Disotto is the Editor of iMore, helping you get the most from your Apple products and fixing things when your technology isn't behaving itself.

Based in Scotland, where he worked as a Genius Bar technician repairing iPhones, John-Anthony has used the Apple ecosystem for over a decade and prides himself on closing his Apple Watch activity rings.

He leads iMore's work on AI in the newsroom, testing where it genuinely improves editorial work and where it doesn't. Every story is written, edited, and signed off by a person.

Previously in editorial at TechRadar and Tom's Guide, John-Anthony is an avid film geek who won the Edinburgh International Film Festival Student Critics award in 2019. Away from Apple, he tinkers with game emulation and Linux on his Steam Deck.