Apple is finalizing a major overhaul of photo editing on its devices , centered around artificial intelligence and preparing significant changes for the Photos app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The update will arrive with iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27, and will represent one of the company's most ambitious steps in this area.
According to information reported by Bloomberg and other sources close to the development, the company is working on a new suite of tools under the Apple Intelligence umbrella that will allow users to automatically enlarge, enhance, and reframe images. With this, Apple aims to match—or at least approach—the established offerings of competitors like Google and Samsung in the field of generative AI editing.
A new block of smart editing tools
The Photos app will incorporate a dedicated section called “Apple Intelligence Tools ,” which will house new advanced editing features. This section will coexist with the existing Adjustments, Filters, Crop, and Clean Up options, but will represent a significant leap forward in capabilities by relying more heavily on artificial intelligence models.
Until now, only Clean Up used AI to remove unwanted elements from a photograph, with inconsistent results depending on the image type. With the next generation of systems, Apple intends for artificial intelligence to move beyond being a one-off addition and become central to the editing experience.
The company is developing at least three main tools for Photos: Extend, Enhance, and Reframe. In some test environments, Clean Up is also mentioned as part of this suite, although its functionality is already familiar to platform users.
This initiative is part of Apple Intelligence's broader strategy, the suite of AI features integrated into the ecosystem that the brand is gradually rolling out. Photo editing is one of the areas where this project will be most clearly reflected for the end user.
Extend: expand the scene beyond the original frame
One of the major new features will be Extend, a function designed to expand the edges of an image using generative AI models. Instead of cropping to fit the photo to another format, the system will be able to "invent" content consistent with the scene to fill the extra space.
In practice, this would allow, for example, converting a vertical photo to a horizontal format without losing important parts of the composition. The tool will generate new visual elements that respect the original lighting, style, and perspective, similar to what has already been seen in solutions like Photoshop's generative expansion or in some Android mobile features.
According to leaks, users will be able to manually specify which areas they want to extend , likely by dragging the edges of the frame with on-screen gestures. The system will then complete the rest in a matter of seconds, primarily working on the device itself.
This type of feature can have a significant impact on social media, where the need to adapt photos to different formats (vertical stories, square posts, panoramas, etc.) is constant. For many users in Spain and Europe, it could represent a considerable time saving compared to third-party solutions.
Enhance: Automatic improvement with more advanced AI
The second key element of the update will be Enhance, an evolution of the automatic enhancement that Photos has offered for years. Instead of applying generic adjustments, this new version will use more sophisticated AI models to analyze the content of each image more accurately.
The system will be able to adjust brightness, exposure, color, contrast, sharpness, and other parameters in a more contextual way, adapting to the type of scene: portraits, landscapes, dimly lit interiors, or nighttime photographs, among others. The goal is to achieve more natural and less "artificial" results than those obtained with traditional algorithms.
Apple aims to allow many users to achieve near-expert manual results with a single tap, reducing the learning curve and eliminating the need to delve into advanced menus. This approach may be particularly appealing to those who use the iPhone camera as their primary tool daily and don't want to complicate things too much.
By operating mostly locally, the company reinforces its classic message about privacy and on-device processing , an aspect that carries added weight in Europe due to the regulatory framework surrounding personal data and cloud services.
Reframe: to change the framing and perspective after taking the photo
The third major new feature is Reframe, a function designed to reconfigure the composition of a photo even after it has been taken. It's not simply about cropping or rotating, but about reinterpreting the scene with the help of artificial intelligence models.
Reframing will be especially relevant in so-called spatial photos, the three-dimensional format promoted by Apple following the launch of Vision Pro. With depth information available, the system will be able to manipulate different planes and angles to reposition elements within the image.
In practice, this would allow, for example, highlighting a specific person within a group , slightly changing the point of view, or smoothing distortions without having to retake the photo. The idea is to offer greater compositional flexibility afterward, something that can be useful for both advanced users and those who simply want to "fix" a photo that didn't turn out perfectly.
These types of capabilities, if they end up working reliably, will strengthen Apple's position in an area where Google and some Android manufacturers already offer very powerful solutions , especially in their high-end ranges.
Clean Up and the current state of AI editing at Apple
Alongside the new features, Clean Up, the tool for removing unwanted objects or people from an image, will remain . Although it's already part of Photos, reports suggest that Apple may continue to refine its algorithms to improve the quality of the results.
So far, some users have noted that Clean Up can leave artifacts or unrealistic areas when deleting elements, especially in complex backgrounds or scenes with a lot of detail. These criticisms partly explain the company's caution in deploying more aggressive features based on generative AI.
Currently, the Photos app offers four main groups of tools: Adjustments, Filters, Crop, and Clean Up . With the addition of Extend, Enhance, and Reframe, the leap from the current generation will be significant, bringing the app integrated into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS closer to what many European users already find in third-party applications.
The move aligns with Apple's desire to keep users within its own ecosystem , reducing reliance on external apps for common editing tasks and offering a more consistent experience across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
On-device processing, privacy, and performance
One of the most discussed aspects of these new features is that, according to leaks, the processing of the new functions will be done primarily on the device itself . This means that editing will be completed in a matter of seconds without needing to upload photos to external servers.
This approach reinforces Apple's narrative about data protection and local control of information , a message that tends to resonate particularly well in Europe, where the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other regulations place privacy at the center of the technological debate.
However, this approach also demands a high level of optimization and performance to ensure a smooth process, especially on devices with older hardware. Apple has been working on chips with specific AI capabilities for some time, so these features will also serve to highlight the value of that investment.
In addition to editing tools, the company plans to improve the overall performance of its operating systems , reducing errors and refining the user experience following significant visual changes introduced in previous years. The balance between innovation and stability will be key to the widespread adoption of these features.
Challenges in AI quality and potential feature delays
Despite the progress in development, sources indicate that Apple is still facing quality issues with some of the new tools. Specifically, Extend and Reframe are reportedly causing the most problems during internal testing.
Engineers reportedly detected inconsistent results, errors in details, or implausible added elements when expanding or reframing images, something that can be especially problematic in scenes with people or complex backgrounds.
The situation is reminiscent of what happened with the new AI-powered version of Siri , whose launch was reportedly postponed because the company felt it hadn't yet reached the expected level of quality. Apple typically prioritizes reliability over speed of deployment, even if it means arriving later than the competition.
For this reason, it is possible that some of the features announced internally may be delayed or even left out of the initial presentation if the company believes it is not ready for a large-scale public launch.
Direct competition with Google, Samsung and the Android ecosystem
The rise of AI-powered photo editing comes amid intense competition in the mobile sector . Google has long been a leader in this field with its Pixel phones, where tools like Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, and generative image expansion have set the standard.
Samsung has also made significant progress with AI-powered editing features on its Galaxy devices , leveraging both its own software and collaborations with Google and other players in the Android ecosystem. This competitive front has left Apple in a more conservative position by comparison.
Apple's new suite of AI tools for Photos aims to close the gap with these alternatives and offer a solid option within the iOS and macOS ecosystem. The goal is not only to satisfy existing users but also to enhance its appeal to future iPhone and Mac buyers in Europe.
Although the company generally avoids grandiloquent language, the rollout of these features fits with a clearer repositioning of Apple in the field of generative AI , where it has so far been perceived as slower than rivals such as Google, Microsoft or OpenAI.
Planned schedule: WWDC and fall launch
The official unveiling of these new features is scheduled for the next edition of WWDC , Apple's annual developers conference, which will be held on June 8. That day, the company is expected to detail the main features of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27, including the new photo editing tools.
If the usual schedule holds, the first developer betas will be released on the same day as the keynote, allowing programmers and advanced users to begin testing features in controlled environments. Public betas for a wider audience will follow later.
The final version of the operating systems is expected to be released in September, coinciding with the arrival of the new generation of iPhones on the market. In Europe and Spain, the rollout is usually simultaneous, so users could access these features around the same time as in other regions.
In a year marked by the rise of generative AI and increasing pressure from rivals, Apple's commitment to a top-to-bottom overhaul of photo editing within its platform aims to demonstrate that the company continues to consider mobile photography as one of its strategic pillars, combining hardware and software to maintain the appeal of its ecosystem.