iOS 27 is getting three new AI photo editing tools — but two are already struggling in testing

Apple is adding three AI-powered photo editing tools to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 this fall — but Bloomberg (Mark Gurman) reports that development on two of them hasn't gone smoothly, raising real doubts about whether they'll arrive intact at launch. The features — Extend, Enhance, and Reframe — are designed to go well beyond what the Photos app currently offers. Apple's Clean Up tool, which removes objects from images, has long lagged behind similar tools on Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy devices; this update is a direct attempt to catch up.

The three tools

Extend uses generative AI to fill in content beyond the original edges of a photo — similar to Google's Magic Eraser outpainting. Enhance automatically improves lighting, color, and overall image quality. Reframe lets you adjust the composition of a shot after the fact, with specific support for spatial photos taken on Vision Pro-compatible hardware.

All three run on-device through Apple Intelligence, meaning photos aren't sent to external servers for processing. Each operation is said to take only seconds. On-device processing is a meaningful privacy advantage over cloud-dependent alternatives, though Apple hasn't detailed how spatial photo data is handled under UK or EU data rules.

The reliability problem

MacRumors and Bloomberg both flag that Extend and Reframe are the problem children here. Internal testing has exposed reliability issues with both, and either could be delayed or scaled back before the fall release. Enhance, the more straightforward of the three, appears to be on track.

This pattern isn't new for Apple. The Clean Up tool launched in a noticeably weaker state than Pixel's Magic Eraser and has only recently closed the gap. If Extend and Reframe follow the same trajectory, users may get a partial rollout at iOS 27's September or October launch, with full functionality following in a point update.

What to watch for

Apple is previewing iOS 27 at WWDC on June 8. That event should clarify how much of this photo editing overhaul is ready to show publicly — and whether the ambition of Extend and Reframe survives contact with a live demo stage.