Apple unveils AI photo editing tools in iOS 27 at WWDC

Apple Unveils AI-Powered Photo Editing Tools in iOS 27 at WWDC 2026

Apple on Monday introduced new artificial intelligence-powered photo editing capabilities as part of iOS 27, previewed during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference keynote at Apple Park. The features, housed under a new “Apple Intelligence Tools” section in the Photos app, include tools called Extend, Enhance, and Reframe that leverage on-device machine learning for image manipulation.

What the New Tools Do

The Extend tool uses generative AI to expand a photo beyond its original frame, filling in scenery when a user changes the crop of an image. Users can control how much content is generated by using zoom gestures to expand the edges. Enhance automatically tweaks color, lighting, and overall image quality using AI, functioning as a one-tap improvement tool. Reframe, designed primarily for spatial photos, allows users to shift the perspective of an image after it has been captured — for instance, adjusting the viewing angle of a 3D photo taken on Apple Vision Pro.macrumors

Apple confirmed during the keynote that all images edited or generated using Apple Intelligence will carry a SynthID watermark, and the company emphasized that AI processing runs on-device rather than in the cloud. The tools join Clean Up, previously the sole AI editing feature in Apple’s Photos app.engadget

A Cautious Entry Into AI Editing

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported in April that internal testing of Extend and Reframe had yielded mixed results, with sources indicating the tools “don’t perform reliably” in some cases. Apple did not specify during the keynote whether all three tools would ship with the initial iOS 27 release this fall or arrive in subsequent updates.bloomberg

Among major smartphone makers, Apple has been the most conservative in deploying AI photo editing, trailing competitors like Google which have offered generative fill and similar features in Android for over a year. The new tools are expected to be available on devices that support Apple Intelligence, including iPhone 16 models or later and iPhone 15 Pro.petapixel

Broader iOS 27 Context

The photo editing announcement came alongside a sweeping overhaul of Siri, rebranded as “Siri AI” and powered by Google’s Gemini models, which dominated the keynote. iOS 27 will be available on iPhone 11 or later, with developer betas rolling out this week and a public release expected this fall.macrumors