Apple overhauls the iOS 27 photo editor with three AI features aimed at Android

Apple is preparing a major redesign of the built-in photo editor in iOS 27 and macOS 27, betting on artificial intelligence to catch up with Android in an area where the iPhone has long lagged behind.

What changes in the editor

The company is completely rethinking the editing tools built into the Photos app on iPhone, iPad and Mac. According to Bloomberg, the key directions are expanding the frame, improving image quality and reframing. The three features have self-explanatory English names: extend, enhance, reframe. Together they cover an area where Android flagships have long been ahead of the iPhone.

Until now, Apple's built-in editor offered a standard, no-surprises toolset: cropping, brightness, contrast, saturation, filters. Generative capabilities — erasing objects, completing the frame, changing the composition without cropping — were available only through third-party apps such as Lightroom, Snapseed or Facetune. Apple wants to bring this level of editing into the stock gallery, with no extra downloads and no paid subscriptions.

What is planned for the updated editor:

• Extend — expanding the frame: AI fills in the edges of the shot beyond the original
• Enhance — improving quality: adjusting sharpness, light, white balance and noise
• Reframe — recomposing the shot: changing the composition without losing detail
• Deep integration into the stock Photos app on iOS, iPadOS and macOS

Why now

Android makers put AI editing at the center of their marketing several years ago. Google Pixel has offered Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur and Best Take since the sixth generation. Samsung Galaxy built Generative Edit and an object-removal mode straight into the stock gallery. Chinese manufacturers — Xiaomi, Honor, Vivo — are actively expanding the AI features of their native camera apps.

Apple has traditionally bet on hardware superiority: larger sensors, improved optics, Night mode, the Photonic Engine processor. Software editing tools developed more slowly than those of its competitors. As a result, in independent comparisons users and journalists increasingly noted that Android's out-of-the-box processing turns out to be more convenient — especially for people who shoot and edit a lot before posting to social media.

Apple Intelligence, launched in 2025, covered text, notifications, mail and Siri. Photos are the next logical frontier: it is the first thing a user opens when picking up the phone. This is where Apple has to show that AI is integrated organically rather than bolted on.

When to expect it and on which devices

iOS 27 and macOS 27 are traditionally announced at WWDC in June and reach public release in September. If Bloomberg's information is confirmed, the new AI photo tools will arrive in exactly this autumn cycle.

The generative features will most likely be limited to devices with A17 Pro chips or newer — Apple already follows this pattern with some Apple Intelligence features. iPhone 14 owners and users of earlier models will get the updated editor interface, but without the generative capabilities. For those who have not upgraded in the last two to three years, this becomes one more argument to upgrade in the fall.

One separate nuance: if Apple uses the same architecture as in other Apple Intelligence features, photo processing will happen directly on the device. That means photos do not need to be sent to the cloud — an important argument for users who value privacy.

What it means

Apple is taking on one of the last areas where Android systematically led the iPhone: intelligent photo editing right in the stock gallery. If the implementation proves more convenient than Google's or Samsung's, it will become one of the key arguments for buying a new iPhone in autumn 2026.