'Hidden' iPhone trick deciphers confusing laundry codes and scans clothing items

Daily Mirror

19-05-2025

Coming up with stylish outfits everyday can be hard - luckily these little-known TikTok hacks show how you can easily use your iPhone to create incredible new looks
Fashion is constantly changing and it can be hard putting together cool outfits – especially if you don't consider yourself naturally stylish. Luckily, there are a few unusual iPhone fashion hacks floating around online that can help.
Understandably, many fashionistas like to gatekeep about their best outfits. After all, you don't want to risk someone else showing up in the same jeans or dress at an event. But technology is catching up. According to TikTokkers, the next time you're itching to copy a fit or a clothing item, all you need is your iPhone.
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One TikTok user, @seppseats, posted a weird little-known hack to find out the make of clothing items. He said: 'I wanna show you a really cool hack called Visual Intelligence.'
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Using his shoes as an example, he continued: 'If I want to know what model these are, just take a photo. Then type in 'ask' and say, 'what shoes are these?'' The phone then connects with ChatGPT to show the exact brand and model the shoes come from.
The way it works is that you need to activate 'Visual Intelligence' through the control centre, or by adding it to the Action or Lock screen. Simply hold down your iPhone Camera Control button, focus it on the clothing item and a search bar should come up allowing you to identify the brand. The only caveat is you need either an iPhone 16e, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max for it to work.
Another great outfit hack that's gone viral is using your phone to create outfit collages. This can help you identify what's already in your wardrobe and put together new looks.
Australian designer Kirsty Irwin revealed how she uses her iPhone to plan outfits. On TikTok, she explained: 'You go to your image, hold down the area where the outfit is, click copy and select paste and categorise them as you wish.'
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She showed a page in her notes app with her outfits arranged side-by-side under 'event' and 'casual'. 'This helps me keep track of the outfits I've worn and it's also great inspo for when I'm stuck,' she added.
She also admitted that she's screenshot other people's outfits before for inspiration. Once you've screenshot the photos, you can also go through the same steps to add them to your mood board.
According to Apple, if you have an iOS 16 or later, you can hold down an item or subject in a photo until a shiny white line appears. Then you can save it to your files or copy and paste it over to another document.
You can also use your iPhone to figure out how to care for your clothes. The laundry tag is usually full of symbols and it can be hard to know what all of them mean. But TikTok user @itricksmark posted a handy hack to address this.
'Instead of Googling [laundry symbols] one-by-one, your iPhone can decode them instantly,' he shared. 'Take a picture of the laundry tag, open the photo and scroll up. Tap on Laundry care and boom! Your iPhone tells you exactly what each symbol means.' He then showed a results page by 'Siri Knowledge', decoding each symbol. For this hack, you need an iOS 17, according to Apple Insider.