APPLE · iOS 27 | 28 April 2026 | 5 min read
iOS 27 brings a new suite of Apple Intelligence tools to the Photos app – but questions remain about whether the features will actually work at launch.
For years, Apple has watched rivals pull further ahead in AI-powered photography. Google’s Pixel phones have offered tools like Magic Eraser and generative image expansion for the better part of a decade. Samsung has pushed aggressively into AI editing with its Galaxy lineup. Apple, meanwhile, has had exactly one AI editing tool – Clean Up – and even that has drawn consistent criticism for producing artefacts and distorted fills.
That’s all about to change. iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 – slated for release this autumn – are set to introduce a meaningful overhaul of the Photos app’s editing capabilities, powered by Apple Intelligence. It’s the company’s most significant push yet to compete in a space it has arguably conceded for too long.
What’s actually coming
The update adds a dedicated “Apple Intelligence Tools” section to the Photos editing interface, housing four features: Extend, Enhance, Reframe, and the existing Clean Up tool. Here’s what each one does:
| NEW Extend Generates new image content beyond the original frame. Users pinch or drag to expand edges, and the model fills in plausible surrounding scenery. | NEW Enhance Automatically improves colour, lighting and overall image quality using on-device AI — no manual adjustments needed. |
| NEW Reframe Designed for spatial photos – Apple’s 3D format built for Vision Pro – Reframe lets users shift perspective after the shot is taken. | EXISTING Clean Up Removes unwanted objects from images. Reportedly receiving improvements alongside the new tools in iOS 27. |
Processing runs entirely on-device and typically completes in a few seconds. That’s consistent with Apple’s longstanding commitment to privacy-first AI – unlike cloud-dependent alternatives that route your photos through a remote server.
| WORTH NOTING The Enhance tool is arguably the most immediately useful for most users – it’s the kind of one-tap improvement that people actually use every day, and it doesn’t require understanding 3D spatial formats or generative expansion to get value from it. |
Reliability is a real concern
Here’s where it gets complicated. According to multiple sources familiar with internal testing, both Extend and Reframe have shown unreliable results. That’s not unusual for early-stage AI features, but it does raise the question of whether Apple will ship them in their current form, delay them, or quietly scale back their capabilities before iOS 27 launches.
Apple is no stranger to that pattern. Several Apple Intelligence features announced for iOS 18 were either delayed well beyond the initial release or launched in a noticeably more limited form than initially described. The company has since tried to be more measured in how it previews AI capabilities – but the pressure to match or surpass Google and Samsung is clearly increasing.
The existing Clean Up tool also remains a work in progress. Since its debut, users have reported inconsistent results – removed objects leaving behind smeared edges, or fills that look plausible in isolation but obviously wrong in context. Apple’s new models will need to address these underlying issues, not just add new surface-level features on top of a shaky foundation.
The broader iOS 27 picture
Photo editing is just one part of Apple’s software ambitions for this autumn. The company is also developing a dedicated Siri app with a redesigned, chatbot-style interface – a substantial departure from the current Siri experience. There are also plans for multi-step command handling within a single Siri request, and the ability to set third-party voice assistants as defaults via the App Store.
Alongside the AI work, iOS 27 is reportedly taking a “Snow Leopard”-style approach to performance: fewer visual fireworks, more focus on fixing bugs and extending battery life after last year’s more visually ambitious release. For users frustrated with iOS 18’s rougher edges, that alone may be reason to look forward to the update.
| RELEASE WINDOW Autumn 2026 | NEW AI TOOLS 3 + improved Clean Up | PROCESSING On-device | RELIABILITY STATUS Still in testing |
TTS Take
Apple entering the AI photo editing race properly is overdue and welcome. On-device processing is a genuine advantage – no one wants their holiday photos routed through a data centre to have a stranger photobomber removed. And if Enhance works reliably, it has the potential to be one of those features that quietly becomes essential, the kind users can’t imagine living without six months after launch.
The reliability problems with Extend and Reframe are a yellow flag, not a red one. Apple has the time and model infrastructure to improve both before autumn. But the company’s recent track record with AI feature launches means cautious optimism is the right posture – wait to see what actually ships before deciding whether iOS 27’s Photos app is the catch-up moment Apple needs it to be.
| THE BOTTOM LINE Apple is making a serious push into AI photo editing with iOS 27. The ambition is right; the execution remains to be proven. Watch this space as developer betas begin later this year. |