Incorporating events into the calendar with a screenshot is the best of artificial intelligence.

Apple's artificial intelligence capabilities have left much to be desired thus far; however, there is a new feature being introduced with iOS 26 that is quite useful: the ability to add items to your calendar through a screenshot. I have been testing this feature in the developer beta for the past few weeks, and I can assure you it works perfectly, becoming my favorite Apple feature in the realm of artificial intelligence. While this claim may not be very strong and the feature is not as advanced as its counterpart on Android, enjoying a resource that truly saves time is a refreshing change.

Adding events to your calendar may not sound too exciting, but I must admit that I have issues with calendars. I frequently find myself adding appointments on the wrong day, in the wrong calendar, or even forgetting them altogether. It's not my best quality.

The "Visual Intelligence" feature identifies the relevant information and suggests a calendar event based on the provided details. The version of iOS that incorporates artificial intelligence to add events to the calendar utilizes this Visual Intelligence. The option to create events from photos was introduced in iOS 18, and now iOS 26 expands this functionality to anything on your screen. All you need to do is take a screenshot, and a notification will pop up with the option to "Add to Calendar." When you press it, after a few moments, you'll see a preview of the event to be added with the main information. You can choose to edit the event or simply create it if everything is correct and you want to continue with your day.

This feature would be of little use if it didn't work consistently; fortunately, I haven't had any problems. So far, I haven’t seen it make mistakes in identifying the day, time, or location of an event, although on one occasion it didn’t take the time zone difference into account. However, overall, everything gets added to my calendar as it should, and I am always pleased when it saves me the need to open the calendar app. The only limitation I've found is that it cannot create multiple events from a single capture; it only takes the first event it detects and suggests it. If you're looking for more advanced functionality for event management, you'll need an Android phone.

Gemini Assistant has been able to add events based on what you see on screen since August of last year, and it even implemented support for Samsung Calendar in January. To use it, you can invoke Google Assistant and tap an icon that says "Ask about the screen." Gemini takes a screenshot to use as a reference, and then you simply need to type or speak to add the event to your calendar. This functionality hasn’t always worked optimally, but it has significantly improved.

I tested Gemini Assistant on a Pixel 9 Pro, assigning it the task of adding several preschool events to my calendar listed at the end of an email, and it managed to create an event for each of them on the correct day. On another occasion, it also recognized that the events were listed in Eastern Time and adjusted for the time difference. Sometimes, it even adds a description to the event based on the text on the screen. I used Gemini on Google Calendar on my laptop, where Gemini is always available when using any Google product, and it turned a list of school closure dates into calendar events. Parents with school-age children receive these notifications around 200 times a year.

Gemini Assistant can add multiple events simultaneously, which represents a significant time saver in these situations.

All of this is interesting, but should we consider it simply a rebranding of an existing function? As far as I can see, it’s not exactly that. Versions of this feature already existed on both platforms, albeit in a more basic form. On my iPhone 13 Mini, which lacks artificial intelligence, you can tap a date in an email to have the option to add it to the calendar. However, it uses the subject of the email as the event title; a good start, but it's not ideal to add five events to my calendar with the header “July Preschool Newsletter.” Android also suggests adding events to the calendar from screenshots, but they often get the dates and times wrong. Artificial intelligence seems to be better designed for this particular task, and I am ready to embrace it.