How to ask AI about your screenshots

Screenshots are the quickest way to keep something. A competitor’s pricing table, a flight confirmation, a recipe from a story that disappears in a day, an error message, a slide from a webinar, a message thread you want to remember. They pile up in the camera roll between photos of the dog, and on the desktop as files named Screenshot 2026-03-14 at 09.12.47.png.

This guide covers how people usually get information back out of screenshots, where that gets slow, and how to collect screenshots in Fabric so the AI assistant can answer questions using the text and visual content inside them.

How people usually get answers from screenshots

The camera roll is where most phone screenshots stay. Phone photo apps group them into a screenshots album, and recent versions can pick up some text in images. Finding the right one is still mostly scrolling, and a question that needs information from several screenshots (which of these five pricing pages has the cheapest annual plan?) means opening each one and comparing by eye.

On a computer, screenshots land on the desktop or in a folder. Some people rename the important ones, which helps if they remember to do it. File search on Mac and Windows matches names well and is less dependable on text inside an image.

Uploading a screenshot to ChatGPT or Claude and asking about it works well for one or two images. It’s harder for a question across a collection, since each image has to be found and attached first, and the answers stay in that conversation.

Designers and founders tracking competitors often feel this most. A folder of saved screenshots with no way to search them is the kind of reference library that gets abandoned. How to search photos by what’s in them looks at the wider image problem.

Step 1: Bring your screenshots into Fabric

On iOS and Android, Fabric can import screenshots automatically, so new ones arrive in your library without any extra steps. For older screenshots, select them in the photos app, tap Share and choose Fabric. The apps are on the mobile download page.

While browsing, the browser extension for Chrome, Safari and Firefox can take a screenshot of the page and save it straight to Fabric. Screenshots already on your computer can be dragged in, pasted, or added with Upload a file, which handles large batches at once.

You can add a comment or tags to anything you save. A short comment on a screenshot whose purpose isn’t obvious, such as “layout idea for the onboarding screen”, gives the assistant context the image alone can’t.

Step 2: Let Fabric read the text and the image

Each screenshot is processed as it arrives. Fabric reads the text inside it, works out what the image shows visually, and picks up its colors. It also writes a short summary, extracts the content type and topics, and suggests tags. The image understanding page describes how this works.

None of this needs you to rename or sort anything. A screenshot of a hotel booking becomes findable by the hotel’s name, the dates on it, or a description like “the booking with the blue header”.

Step 3: Ask the assistant about a set of screenshots

Put related screenshots in a folder, such as “Competitor pricing” or “Trip to Lisbon”, open the folder and open the AI assistant. It’s automatically limited to that folder and analyzes everything in it. You can also right-click the folder and add it to the assistant’s context without opening it.

Then ask the question you’d otherwise answer by flicking between images. “Which of these competitors charge per seat, and what’s their cheapest annual plan?” or “What time is my train to Porto, and which platform?” The answer cites the screenshots it used with clickable references, so you can open each one and confirm the detail.

Follow-up questions keep the context. After the pricing comparison, ask which plans include single sign-on, or which page mentioned a free trial. You can choose the model that answers, from Gemini, OpenAI, Claude, DeepSeek, Grok, Qwen and others, under one subscription.

For a screenshot you can’t place, ask without a folder. The assistant runs an agentic search across Fabric and any connected apps, so “find the screenshot of the error message about expired certificates” works across your whole library.

Step 4: Search when you want the image itself

Click Search or press Cmd+F (Mac) / Ctrl+F (Windows) and describe the screenshot. Search covers text inside images, including photographed text, and what’s in them visually. Put words in quotes for an exact match on something like an order number.

For visual references, search by color with a HEX code or the color picker, or select one screenshot and run a similarity search to find others with a similar composition, color and subject. How to find files that look similar to one you have goes further into that.

Answers worth keeping can be saved as notes, so a pricing comparison stays in the folder with the screenshots behind it.

Frequently asked questions

Can AI read the text in my screenshots?

Yes. Fabric reads text inside images and screenshots, so it’s searchable and available to the AI assistant.

Can AI understand what’s in a screenshot, beyond the text?

Fabric works out the visual content of images as well as the text and colors. Search uses that, and for images, similarity search covers composition, color and subject.

How do I get my phone screenshots into Fabric automatically?

Fabric can import screenshots automatically from iOS and Android. For older ones, select them in your photos app and share them to Fabric.

Can I ask one question across lots of screenshots?

Yes. Put them in a folder and open the assistant inside it. It analyzes everything in the folder and cites the screenshots it used.

Do I need to rename or tag my screenshots first?

No. Fabric reads each one on arrival and suggests tags, and search works without any organizing.

Can I save a screenshot of a web page straight to Fabric?

Yes. The browser extension for Chrome, Safari and Firefox can save a screenshot of the page you’re on.

Can I find a screenshot by its color?

Yes. Search by color with a HEX code or the color picker.

Can I ask about a single screenshot?

Yes. Ask the assistant without a folder and describe the screenshot, and it finds it and cites it in the answer. For repeated questions about one image, give it a folder of its own.

Is asking AI about screenshots included on the free plan?

The free plan includes file uploads and limited AI use. For more AI use, see pricing.