Apple's iOS 27 is rolling out its first serious set of AI-powered photo editing tools, and The Verge's senior reviewer Allison Johnson put them through their paces in the developer beta released at WWDC 2026. The update includes three new features—or as Johnson puts it, "two and a half"—headlined by a major upgrade to the Clean Up tool, which previously only worked so well it essentially didn't work. Clean Up can now tap into more powerful cloud-based models in addition to on-device processing, finally putting it on par with Google's Magic Editor on Pixel phones, which has had a years-long head start.
The second feature, Extend, lets users stretch the borders of a photo outward, with AI painting in plausible-looking filler content to fill the gaps. The third, and most ambitious, is Spatial Reframing, which simulates the effect of physically moving a camera around a scene after the fact, allowing users to recompose existing shots. Johnson flagged this as potentially the most problematic of the bunch, hinting at bigger questions about what qualifies as an authentic photo when the camera position itself can be digitally manipulated after capture.
The shift marks a tipping point for Apple's native Photos app, which has historically been more conservative about in-app editing than competitors. While iOS 27's offerings are still "pretty tame" compared to what Google has shipped on Pixel devices, Johnson notes the update pushes the iPhone—still the most widely used camera in the world—into unfamiliar territory. Apple is expected to continue tweaking the features before a public release, but the developer beta gives an early look at how the company is finally embracing the fantasy, and the philosophical headaches, of AI photo editing.