Search

How to find a screenshot by the text inside it

Type the words you remember seeing. CloudShots reads the text in every screenshot on your device and searches it together with the scene tags and the filename it writes for you, so a phrase from the picture is enough to bring the screenshot back.

  • The text recognized in the screenshot, including text inside a photo of a screen or a document.
  • Scene tags describing what is in the picture.
  • The descriptive filename CloudShots generates on a device that supports Apple Intelligence and syncs to your other devices.
  • A match by what the screenshot is about, even when the exact phrase differs.

All four are produced on the device and sync only through your private iCloud, so your other devices search them without recomputing. The meaning match is computed on each device and never syncs, and nothing goes to any server.

  1. Open CloudShots on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad and type into the search field.
  2. Use as many words as you remember, in any order — a screenshot containing all of them, like “invoice march” for “March invoice total”, comes first, and close matches by meaning follow.
  3. Narrow it by time with a phrase like “yesterday”, “last week”, or “last 30 days” next to your words.
  4. On Mac, iPhone, and iPad, ask Siri in a full sentence — CloudShots turns it into the same search, on the device.
  5. Or start from Spotlight. CloudShots gives it the capture date, the recognized text, and the tags, and opening a result opens that exact screenshot.
  • Verification codes, passwords, IBANs, links, email addresses, phone numbers, and postal addresses are picked out for you to copy or open. A one-time code or password is copied only on that device and expires shortly after.
  • Live Text over the open screenshot, so you can select and copy anything by hand.
  • A short summary of the open screenshot, written once on a device that supports Apple Intelligence, synced to your other devices, and free on either plan.
  • Find Similar, which ranks visually close screenshots instead of matching words.
  • Search, recognition, generated names, and summaries are free on both plans. There is no account.
  • On Free you can search across all your screenshots, but only the newest 30 in your whole history stay open.
  • Text you have covered with a redaction is left out of what Spotlight receives.
  • Search runs on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Apple Watch shows the history read-only.
Search, answered

Finding a screenshot again.

No. Text recognition, scene tags, generated names, and summaries run on your device; the results sync only through your private iCloud so your other devices can search them without recomputing, and nothing goes to any server.

No. CloudShots finds screenshots by meaning as well as by the exact words — type as many words as you remember, in any order, and a screenshot containing all of them, such as "invoice march" for "March invoice total", comes first, with close matches by meaning following.

Yes. Add a phrase such as "yesterday", "last week", "last month", or "last 30 days" to your words and CloudShots narrows the search to that window.

Yes, on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. CloudShots gives Spotlight the capture date, the recognized text, and the tags, and opening a result opens that exact screenshot in the app. Text you have covered with a redaction is left out.

Yes. Search and on-device recognition cost nothing. On Free you can search across all your screenshots, but only the newest 30 in your whole history stay open.

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