ImageLocate support

ImageLocate works out where a photo was taken — and the floor it was taken from — even when the photo has no GPS. It reads signs and languages, the sun and the skyline, sockets and street furniture, weighs every clue with calibrated probabilities, and shows you its working. This page answers common questions and links the legal documents.

• Privacy policy

  What stays on your iPhone, and the little that doesn't.

• Terms of use

  The licence, fair use, and what the app can't promise.

• Email us

  NAV-INT-LLC@pm.me — we read everything.

Requirements

ImageLocate needs iOS 26.4 or later on iPhone or iPad. Visual reasoning — Apple's on-device model looking at the photo itself — needs a device with Apple Intelligence switched on, and looks at the image directly on iOS 27. Without it, every other method still works: text, metadata, the sun, geometry, maps and the rest.

Common questions

How does it work out where a photo was taken?

If the photo has a GPS position, that settles most of it. If not, ImageLocate reads the photo the way an investigator would: the language and script of the signs, business and street names (looked up on Apple Maps and OpenStreetMap), phone numbers, web domains and postcodes, the architecture and landscape, the shape of the power sockets, the colour of the exit signs, the sun's height from the shadows, and mountain skylines matched against terrain. Each clue is weighed by how much it really narrows things down, and clues that overlap are not counted twice.

What do the percentages mean?

They are calibrated probabilities: an answer shown at 80% should be right about four times in five. The answer ladder shows how sure the app is at each scale — usually far surer of the country than of the street.

Why does it sometimes say "Add a clue to narrow it down"?

Because some photos genuinely don't say where they were taken — a close-up of a plant, a hotel room, a plain wall. When nothing reaches a sensible confidence, ImageLocate says so instead of guessing. Typing a hint such as a city or a trip name lets it take your knowledge into account.

How does it estimate the floor?

It reads floor signs and lift panels, counts window rows on the building opposite, measures the camera's height against people standing in the street, compares the photo's recorded altitude with the ground below it, and asks the visual model whether the camera was at street level or high up. When the evidence only says "high up", it says "Floor 5 or above" rather than inventing a number.

Does my photo get uploaded?

No. Analysis happens on your device. Optional online lookups send only short text (names read in the photo), coordinates or dates — never the photo. The one exception is Apple's Private Cloud Compute, which is off unless you switch it on in Settings. The privacy policy lists every service and what it receives.

Is there a subscription or in-app purchase?

No. ImageLocate is a one-time purchase: no subscriptions, no in-app purchases, no ads, and every feature is included. Purchases are handled by Apple; if something isn't right, you can ask Apple for a refund at reportaproblem.apple.com.

Can I use it without an internet connection?

Yes. Switch off Online enrichment in Settings and everything runs on the device; results from photos without GPS will be less specific, because names can't be looked up on a map.

How do I delete my history?

Touch and hold an entry in History and choose Delete. Everything the app stores lives only on your device, so deleting the app deletes all of it.