How to Find Recipes from Photos on iPhone

By Olena Kagui Updated 07/15/2024

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The iPhone Photos app can identify people, different animal species, landmarks, and even recipes! Many people already like to photograph their meals before digging in. With iOS 17, a snap of your lunch will not only preserve the memory, but it can help you recreate it by suggesting a similar recipe.

Why You’ll Love This Tip:

Recreate your favorite restaurant meals at home from a picture you took last week or years ago using Apple’s Visual Lookup.
Discover new recipes that you know you’ll love by browsing through your digital photo albums.
Download or screenshot a photo of a friend's meal or a restaurant menu, and your iPhone will help you recreate it at home.

How to Find Recipes from Photos Using Visual Lookup

System Requirements

This tip works on iPhones running iOS 17 or later. Find out how to update to iOS 17.

Your iPhone can look up similar recipes based on a photo you've taken of a meal. It doesn't matter if you take a photo, screenshot one on social media, or download one from the internet; you can use your iPhone's Visual Lookup to discover a similar recipe. For more iPhone tips, check out our free Tip of the Day newsletter. To discover similar recipes of photographed meals:

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Locate a photo of a meal in your Photos app and tap it to open it.
Tap the i icon.

Tap Look Up Food.
You’ll see a list of recipes. Tap Show More to see more options.

Swipe up and scroll to see the different options based on cooking time, calories, and serving size.
Tap one to go to the recipe.

Pro Tip

If you search for food in the Photos app search bar, you can better navigate all the photos you’ve taken of food. It may show you cartoon images of foods or food-themed items, but it will still narrow down your search.

Now you know how to discover new recipes similar to the meals you’ve had or seen simply by searching your Photos app. Next, learn how to tag cats and dogs in your People album in the Photos app.

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Author Details

Olena Kagui

Olena Kagui is a Feature Writer at iPhone Life. In the last 10 years, she has been published in dozens of publications internationally and won an excellence award. Since joining iPhone Life in 2020, she has written how-to articles as well as complex guides about Apple products, software, and apps. Olena grew up using Macs and exploring all the latest tech. Her Maui home is the epitome of an Apple ecosystem, full of compatible smart gear to boot. Olena’s favorite device is the Apple Watch Ultra because it can survive all her adventures and travels, and even her furbabies.

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