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with apple announcing its "visual intelligence" feature at its event on monday, analysts believe that the search partnership between apple and google is undergoing a new shift.

currently, google's parent company alphabet pays apple about $20 billion a year to make google the default search engine for its safari browser. however, the us court ruled that this move violated us antitrust laws. this case is the largest antitrust case in the united states in more than 20 years, and google's decades-long dominance in the search market may be overturned. as for apple, a previous article in wall street journal stated that without this income, about 15% of apple's pre-tax profits would be affected.

but now, apple seems to be able to "upgrade" its cooperation with google with the release of a new feature: iphone 16 users can access google's search engine and its visual search function by clicking the new camera control button (capture button) on the device.

apple explains that the camera control buttons not only allow users to quickly take photos or record videos, but also adjust options such as zoom, exposure, or depth of field with a slide button.

however, the button also provides access to apple’s new “visual intelligence” search feature, which is the key to the partnership with google.

at first, this camera control button looked like apple's new way of calling the "shutter button," but as the event progressed, apple further explained the more uses for this hardware feature. through the visual smart search function, users can not only easily understand everything the camera sees, but also access third-party services more conveniently through this function without launching independent applications.

some media analysts believe that this feature is essentially similar to google lens or pinterest lens. apple describes visual intelligent search as a way to immediately understand what you see.in several examples, apple demonstrated how you can tap the camera controls to get hours for a restaurant you see in town, or use the feature to identify the breed of dog you see on a walk. the feature can also transform an event poster on your wall into a personal calendar, with all the details.

apple's senior vice president of software engineering, craig federighi, then mentioned that the feature can also be used to access google search. the demonstration showed that when a user pointed the iphone at a bicycle and clicked the camera control button, a purchase information window similar to the option popped up on the screen. the "more google results" button then appeared on the screen, indicating that the user could continue the google search by clicking again.

however, apple did not explain when or how tapping the camera control button would turn to third-party partners rather than built-in apple services for answers, nor did it detail how users can control or configure this feature. federighi only vaguely mentioned: "of course, you always have control over when to use third-party tools."

while a google spokesperson said it had no further information to share at this time, the feature is believed to be part of the two companies’ existing partnership and is unrelated to google’s gemini ai.

analysts believe that the interesting thing about this feature is that it introduces a new mode for interaction with software and services, beyond the services that apple comes with the iphone. as artificial intelligence technology develops, users can talk or send texts to ai assistants through new interfaces instead of relying on apps in the app store to complete tasks. by working with third-party services, apple maintains a close connection with emerging technologies while avoiding direct competition with ai tools such as chatgpt.

at the conference, openai's chatgpt also demonstrated its functions as a third-party partner, and users can access chatgpt through siri. the demonstration showed that users only need to point their mobile phones at class notes and click a button to get help with concepts or questions.