10 Uses For Your iPhone Camera Besides Taking Photos

You can use your iPhone's camera for more than just taking photos. Here are some other useful and interesting things you can do with the camera. Third part apps mentioned: Google, WAM: World Around Me, Star Walk 2, PeakFinder, Seeing The Invisible.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you some things you can do with your iPhone's camera besides taking pictures.
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So of course you can take great pictures with your iPhone's camera but you can also use it for other things as well. The first thing that may come to mind to you is using QR codes to go to websites. Like you might use this at a restaurant to get to their menu. So you just launch the camera app and go into regular photo mode. Then you just bring the QR code into the frame. You'll see the URL underneath it. You tap it and it goes to that webpage. So this is basically just a shortcut for having to type out the entire URL. It just goes to a webpage. You'll see it in all sorts of places. Like large billboards, menus in restaurants, even as an article in magazines. 
Another thing you can do with your camera is to scan documents. This is more than just taking a photo. This is actually taking the document and flattening it out so you don't have to position your camera perfectly above it. So you can do this in many different locations. You can use a dedicated scanning app. But you can also do it right in the Files app. In the Files app go to the location where you want the file to be saved and tap the three dot button at the upper right hand corner. Select Scan Documents and now point your iPhone at the document. You can see it is going to figure out what the document is, scan it, and then you can tap Save or you can continue to scan more pages. You can also do this in the Notes app. So in a note you can add a scan by tapping that same button there at the top. Then tap scan. Then you can scan the document in. Now tap Save and it is actually part of your note. 
Now with text, either on a sign or on a piece of paper, you can easily select the text and copy it. But you can also translate. So here I've got a document here and you can see how it is going to recognize the text and I get this little indicator at the bottom right hand corner. You can see the yellow marks here. I could tap there and you can see I can copy it. I could also translate it since this isn't in English for me and I get the translation. 
It also will convert currencies for you. So if you're looking at something like a menu like this. Focus in on the text that you want and then tap here. Notice it recognizes that there is a currency to convert. You can tap there and get the conversion right there. You've never even taken a picture. You're just pointing your camera with the camera app at an item on the menu. This also works for unit conversions. So here I've got something I can convert. Tap there and you could see at the bottom here I get conversions. 
Now there's also a big feature in your iPhone called Visual Lookup. Now this will look in photos that you've taken and try to identify things like plants and pets. So technically it does involve actually taking a picture. But you just need to take the picture and then you can use it to identify and then delete the photo. If you have iOS 16 you've got the full feature set for this. So you can do birds, you can do pets, you can do art, you can do landmarks, you can do plants, insects, and a few other things. Older versions of iOS will only be able to do things like plants and pets. 
Now some apps will let you do special things with the camera. For instance in the Goggle App, this is a regular Goggle search app, you can use the camera to take pictures and then perform searches. So I'm going to turn this on here. This is called Goggle Lens. Then I'm going to tap here, point the camera at an object, and then tap Search. Then it is going to search based on that object. So you can find out all sorts of interesting things about objects like artwork, or products in a store. 
Now you can also use your iPhone's camera as a Magnifier Glass. Go in Settings to Accessibility and then go down here to Accessibility Shortcuts. Make sure that you've got Magnifier checked here. Note the Triple Click, the side button, that's what brings up all of these options. If you only have Magnifier selected it will go right into that. But if you have several things selected then it is going to give you a choice. Go to Magnifier and then it magnifies whatever it sees. You can slide this to increase magnification to read fine print. You can even snap a temporary photo and then you can bring your iPhone away from whatever it is you're looking at whether it is a recipe maybe ingredients on a package of maybe the directions on a bottle of medicine. 
Another thing you can use your iPhone's camera for is looking at the night sky. So you can use an app, like I'm using Star Walk Two here. Then I'm seeing the night sky. It's actually showing me exactly what I'm pointing my phone at. Now if I tap the camera button up here it will actually show me what it sees through the camera and I can match that. Now I'm not outside and it is not nighttime so it's not going to work for me here. But usually you can see like the landmarks, like maybe building nearby and things like that and it helps you align the phone up. You can definitely see the moon and the brightest stars through your camera this way as well.
Now another thing you can use your camera for is Augmented Reality. So in the iPhone you could do this with the Maps App in certain cities. So it works here in my city and I can actually go out, use Directions. Now I have to switch to Walking Directions. This is for walking directions only. Then I tap this button over here. It looks kind of like a snowflake and you tap that. Now you're actually seeing the directions overlaid on your camera. So you can see how the arrow here is pointing my direction down the street that I need to walk. 
There are other apps out there that will actually just show you what's around you. So this one is called World Around Me and you can just choose a topic like restaurants and then you point your iPhone and it will show you the names of restaurants that you should be able to see through your camera. Another one I like to use, especially here in Colorado, is called Peak Finder. This one allows you to point your iPhone at mountains and then it will show you the actual names of the different peaks and you can line it up to get it perfect and it looks really good here. I'm using it in the city so you can't really see the mountains behind the buildings but those mountains are there and I am looking in the right direction for them. Here's what it look like when you're using it and you can actually see the mountains and you can see how it helps you name the different mountains around you so you can either find your way or just out of curiosity. 
Finally, you iPhone has an app on it you won't usually find on the Home screen. It's called Measure. Just search for it in Spotlight. You can point it at an object and it will actually measure for you. So you could see how it found my trackpad. Tap the Plus button and it gives me measurements. It works better on larger objects, not smaller ones. It's just an approximation but it can be really useful. 
That's not all. There are a lot of other apps out there that will do various things. Sometimes useful. Sometimes just interesting using the camera. For instance here's an app I can use at my local botanical gardens that shows virtual artwork within the gardens. I'm only see these objects through the phone so it's using the camera for the iPhone to show me everything else and then it is superimposing the 3D objects on that. So there are tons of other uses. 
Hope you found this interesting. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 11 Responses to “10 Uses For Your iPhone Camera Besides Taking Photos”

Ian Maitland

2 years ago

Brilliant - I had no idea the system could do so much. I've printed off the transcript!

Mike

I use the scanning function within the iPhone a lot and it works really well. Unless you are scanning reams of paper, the phone works fine for a few pages at a time.

Rohit

Is there a way to scan in a Business Card as a CARD.

Gary Rosenzweig

Rohit: There maybe be a third-party app, but nothing built-in.

MJM

Bit brief on using camera for translating...love to use it on an upcoming trip...mainly Latin inscriptions

Bert Mullemeister

Hi Gary thanks for that video. I found another use for the camera which was very successful. I have a bedside table lamp with opaque sides and by laying it on it side and put a slide on it I was able to make a good picture. I did 60 slides in just one hour and saved the cost of buying or subscribing to an software company

MJM: I doubt Latin will be supported any time soon.

nick

Gary: is there a way to control how Notes scans text? Right now it does it automatically before I even have a chance to place the camera over the text I want scanned. It also scans continuously as long as it sees text. I didn't see any options to control this in Preferences. Thanks.

nick: Switch to Manual. Look for the "Auto" button at the top, tap that to switch to Manual.

Phyllis Weintraub

Wonderful - how to you access Visual lookup? I have an iPhone 12 mini and unfortunately it seems to be a very minimal system. But, when I upgrade, I know it'll be there

Phyllis: In iOS 16 (and 15) you can scroll down when viewing an individual photo and you'll see "Look Up" there. It also appears in other ways. But note you only see it if it finds something. So try it with pictures of flowers, dogs or landmarks.

Comments Closed.

10 Uses For Your iPhone Camera Besides Taking Photos

Comments: 11 Responses to “10 Uses For Your iPhone Camera Besides Taking Photos”

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