How to identify plants with an iPhone for free: Use this mind-blowing trick

A gardener is going viral on TikTok after sharing his easy hack for using an iPhone to identify plants.

The simple trick comes from @thegardenfamily, an Ohio-based family who runs a YouTube and TikTok page dedicated to gardening tips. In a recent clip, they showed how you can identify plants simply by taking a photo of them.

It’s just the latest iPhone hack to go viral on TikTok. In recent months, users have also shared how to block spam calls, how to unlock the phone with just your voice and how to transfer photos between devices just by tapping on them.

The tip from @thegardenfamily is possibly simpler than all those hacks, although many commenters couldn’t believe it worked. Some called the trick “mind-blowing.”

@thegardenfamily
Wow, plant ID is built in on iPhones now?!
♬ original sound – TheGardenFamily

In the clip, @thegardenfamily shows how the feature already exists on iPhones, provided you have the most recent update.

To start, you simply take a photo of the plant you want to identify. Then, you open the image in Photos and click the information symbol (an “i” with a circle around it) at the bottom of the screen.

From there, click “Look Up” and give your phone permission to search for info. Finally, it’ll take its best guess at what plant you photographed.

In the TikTok, @thegardenfamily seemed to find the feature fairly accurate.

“Look at that,” the TikToker said of the feature. “It found out it was a hollyhock despite having no flowers.”

Commenters were equally impressed.

“This is AMAZING,” one user wrote.

“Coolest thing I’ve learned on TikTok,” another agreed.

“It really does work,” another added.

As Apple points out, the trick can be used for many plants and flowers, but also for pets. The feature, formally called Visual Look Up, works on iPhones running iOS 15 or later, as well as on many iPads running iPadOS 15.1 or later.