iOS 27 Could Finally Make the Photos App a Generative AI Powerhouse

Apple is expected to unveil iOS 27 in a few weeks, so it’s no surprise that we’re starting to hear a few whispers about what’s coming in the next major iPhone software update. We’re already expecting the big Siri makeover will finally arrive, delivering not only the more personalized voice assistant that Apple promises in 2024, but a full-on chatbot app. However, Siri won’t be the only part of the iPhone to get new AI smarts in iOS 27.

Insiders have told Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman that Apple also has “a major overhaul of the built-in photo-editing features” in store, with a whole new suite of tools built on its Apple Intelligence platform.

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While Apple dipped its toes into AI photo editing witha Clean Up tool in the first wave of Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18.1, it’s also a poignant example of how much it’s been lagging behind its competitors. The Clean Up tool was basically Apple’s take on Magic Erase, a feature Google introduced on the Pixel 6 lineup in 2021 and brought to Google Photos for iPhone in early 2023 — a year before Apple announced its own version.

Like Clean Up, Magic Eraser was Google’s initial foray into AI photo editing, but the search giant has continued to expand it since then, with features like Magic Editor, Photo Unblur, and Portrait Light — all of which are also freely available to iPhone users.

Apple is starting from behind, but it can also differentiate its tools by building them into the iPhone, iPad, and Mac user experience as an integral part of its Photos app and emphasizing how all edits occur on-device, so there’s no risk of your personal photos being sent to big server farms in the cloud where they can be mined for data.

Extend, Enhance, and Reframe

According to Gurman’s sources, Apple has three specific tools it plans to introduce in iOS 27. While none of these are expected to be revolutionary, they’ll be a nice advantage for folks who’d rather keep their photos living in Apple’s secure and cozy walled garden.

As things stand right now, the editing interface in the Photos app will gain an “Apple Intelligence Tools” section, which will adopt the existing Clean Up option along with three new tools:

1. Extend is probably the most blatantly “AI” of the new tools, as it allows users to generate new content to expand a photo. “For example, someone could take a close-up photo of a landmark and use the tool to fill in surrounding scenery,” Gurman says, adding that users can intuitively control how and where this is filled in with simple pinch and swipe gestures.
2. Enhance is basically Apple bringing an AI model to the more traditional image enhancement tools, automatically improving color, lighting, and image quality.
3. Reframe is the most unique of the three, as Gurman says it’s been built with spatial photos in mind, allowing users to shift the perspective of a photo. It’s not clear if this will work solely with spatial photos taken on a Vision Pro or if Apple Intelligence will employ generative AI to imagine new “perspectives” for standard 2D photos.
   

It’s not entirely clear when — or even if — we’ll see these features appear. Sources have told Gurman that they’re not fully baked yet, with Extend and Reframe still producing unreliable results during internal testing. However, Clean Up hasn’t exactly been a home run for Apple either, with many folks reporting that it produces odd and inconsistent results — even with photos that Google’s Magic Eraser can handle with aplomb.

It’s also pretty much guaranteed that these will require an Apple Intelligence-capable device — an iPhone 15 Pro or newer or an iPad or Mac with an A17 Pro or M-series chip. While we can’t rule out Apple limiting this to even newer models, like the iPhone 17 lineup, that seems unlikely, especially since Google Photos can handle AI-powered edits on even non-Apple Intelligence iPhones, thanks to its cloud-based processing.

If Apple follows its usual playbook, there’s a good chance it will show off these new features at June’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), but we aren’t holding our breath that they’ll actually ship in iOS 27.0, as Apple has much bigger fish to fry in getting Siri 2.0 ready for prime time.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]