Apple adds three AI photo editing tools to iOS 27: Reframe, Extend, and Clean Up

Apple has added to the standard Photos app on iPhone the first full-fledged AI editing tools — three new features appeared in the beta version of iOS 27 for developers and represent a turning point for the world's most popular camera.

What changed in Photos on iPhone

Until iOS 27, the built-in editing tools in Apple Photos were honest, but fundamentally limited: manual cropping, a set of filters, basic brightness and contrast correction. No "magic" involved. Google Pixel has been offering AI features directly in the camera for several years — Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, Best Take, Magic Editor. Samsung added Generative Edit to the Galaxy S24. But on iPhone, these capabilities remained the domain of third-party apps: Snapseed, Adobe Lightroom, Facetune. iOS 27 changes this. Apple has for the first time built generative AI directly into Photos, and now the standard interface can understand the content of a frame — and change it.

Three new AI tools

The beta version of iOS 27 includes three features:

• Reframe — reframes the image taking its content into account. Changes the aspect ratio, keeps the main subject in the frame, and generates background content if necessary using AI.
• Extend — extends the boundaries of the photograph by adding generated content to the edges of the frame. Useful if you need to turn a vertical photo into a horizontal one or add space around an object.
• Clean Up — removes unwanted elements from the image: random passersby, wires in the sky, garbage in the corner. It works on the same principle as Magic Eraser on Pixel, but is now built directly into Apple's standard interface.

Based on initial tests, the tools generally work — but the results are unstable. On some images, AI handles the task cleanly, on others you notice an artifact or a blurred boundary between generated and original content.

Modest compared to competitors — but scale is different

In terms of features, iOS 27 currently lags behind Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy. The feature set is smaller, the algorithms work more cautiously, the generation quality is lower. This is not a revolution — it's a first step. But context matters more than the feature set. iPhone is the most popular camera in the world, used by over a billion people. When Apple adds something to the standard Photos app, it becomes the norm for a huge audience without additional installations, without paid subscriptions, and without training.

"For iPhone this is a turning point in what the native app allows you

to do with your photos."

The remark of the reviewer testing the beta is telling: "These are my memories... although I'm no longer sure." When AI can reinterpret a frame, the boundary between "shot" and "created" begins to blur — and this concerns not only functionality but also trust in the photo as a document.

What does this mean

Apple is carefully but consistently embedding generative AI into the basic functions of iOS. The new tools in Photos are a logical continuation of Apple Intelligence. The final version of iOS 27 will be released in autumn 2026, and by that time Apple will surely improve the quality of the algorithms. For now, it's beta. But the direction is clear: AI photo editing is moving from the niche of enthusiasts to the standard toolkit of every iPhone.