With iOS 15, Apple is finally changing that to make Spotlight more powerful. So now, in addition to returning accurate results, it also offers rich search options and the ability to install/delete apps, carry out web image searches, and look up photos on your device. Of all these, the ability to search photos through the Spotlight search happens to be the most valuable Spotlight feature. Follow along as we discuss the steps on how to use Spotlight to search photos on iPhone in iOS 15. [These steps also work for iPads running iPadOS 15, so you can follow this guide if you own an iPad too.]
Steps to Search Photos in iOS 15 Using Spotlight
First things first, make sure you have Spotlight for Photos enabled on your iPhone. Usually, this functionality is enabled by default, but in case it isn’t, follow these steps to enable it: With Spotlight for Photos enabled, you can search photos in the Photos app from Spotlight using the following steps: When searching for photos on Spotlight, make sure you always prepend your searches with the term “photo” to restrict results only to images and ignore everything else. Although rare, in case the Spotlight fails to show results for your queries, you can use the following solutions to fix it: While the Spotlight search functionality on iOS 15 is really convenient and comes in handy when you want to quickly find images on your device, there may be times when you wouldn’t want these results to appear within your search results, maybe due to privacy concerns. In such situations, you can choose what items appear on the Spotlight search results by using the steps below:
Finding Photos in iOS 15 Efficiently Using Spotlight
Using the Spotlight search functionality in iOS 15, you can easily find photos on your iPhone right from the Home Screen or Lock Screen without having to go into the Photos app. This not only saves you a few steps but also brings essentially the same search functionality that you’d otherwise find in the Photos app at your disposal.
