Along with the brand new Siri AI, Apple is introducing a number of new Apple Intelligence features—including a trio of new AI tools in the Photos app. We've been here before: Apple previously released AI-powered image editing features like Clean Up, which didn't necessarily hit the mark compared to similar tools from competitors like Google or Samsung. But this year appears to be a bit different: Apple's newest models, including those that work off-device, are improving existing features and powering new tools. For the most part, it seems to be a step in the right direction.
Apple’s Clean Up tool is much better
The new Clean Up tool is perhaps the most important update here. In iOS 26, Clean Up used Apple's on-device AI models to remove objects, but it was hit-or-miss. Clean Up was okay at basic tasks, but I found it couldn't remove surrounding shadows, nor could it replace an object with something that looked like it was originally part of the image.
Clean Up now uses a hybrid approach. For simple tweaks, like removing a small object, it uses an on-device model, just like in iOS 26. But, for bigger, more complex tasks (like removing an obstruction around your face), it hands off the task to Apple’s powerful Foundation models hosted on Apple’s own Private Cloud Compute servers. These servers, according to Apple, are completely private and encrypted. Apple says it doesn’t have access to your photos, and it doesn’t use your data for training.
To find these new tools, tap Edit on a photo, then choose Tools at the end of the toolbar. Here, tap Clean Up. By default, the feature is in Auto mode, which is the hybrid approach discussed above. From here, you can also switch to High Quality to force Apple to use the cloud models.
Then, it’s business as usual. Use your fingers to highlight the object or part of the image that you want to remove. If you’re using Fast, the on-device option, the cleanup process will begin instantly. If you’re using High Quality, you’ll need to tap Clean Up and wait until Apple’s models do their thing. In my experience, the wait time can even stretch to minutes if you’re asking for clear, large objects.
After using this feature for cleaning up multiple images, here's the best tip I can give you: always use High Quality. Fast is the same as last year's feature, and while it removes the image, its replacement is lacking, as you can see with the mismatched tabletop in the image above. Even if you are removing a distinct object from a table, High Quality does a better job of replicating the tabletop, as well as shadows falling from other objects.
The improvements continue when dealing with faces. The new iOS 27 feature can use generative AI and your own photos to recreate parts of your face that are obstructed. In my test (which you can see above), Clean Up on iOS 27 got rid of 99% of my coffee mug (though a border somehow still remains). On iOS 26, though, the result is just laughably bad: a soup of surrounding colors.
Extending photos in iOS 27 works like a charm
Extend, as the name suggests, expands your photos. Let’s say you have an off-center shot, or just looks unbalanced. Tap Extend from the Tools menu, then pinch in and move the image around. As you do, the surroundings will begin to blur, indicating the areas that iOS will fill in using Apple’s generative AI models. Because Apple uses cloud models, this too might take some time. Tap Extend, and wait.
Overall, Apple’s generative AI for extending images and filling in details is quite good—with some limitations. That's not necessarily surprising, as it's trained on Gemini’s own models, which are excellent at image manipulation. I tested the feature by extending the frame in nature, and in indoor settings. It did a good job of guessing what was around me, and even gave me a hand and a leg that weren't in the original shot. That said, it completely overexposed the image, so while you get more in the frame, you lose the sky entirely. In a photo I took of a coffee shop, the Photos app took the coffee bags that were on the shelf and just repeated them in the extended shot. This is quite a smart way to make the extended image look more realistic.
Apple's Reframe feature needs a bit of work
The Reframe tool lets you change the angle or the perspective of the photo. You might wish you had moved your phone just a bit to the right before taking that snap of your partner, and while the moment is gone, the angle might be saved. With Reframe, you can swipe around on the image to change the perspective, as if you were adjusting the angle when originally taking the photo. The app shows you a live preview of what things will look like (as this is just a preview, it will show some unnatural bending, but that won’t be in the final result). Then, tap Reframe, and let Apple’s cloud models do their thing. After some time, the reframed image will be ready.
In my testing, I found this to be the most jarring tool. It does the job, but it struggles with faces quite a lot. It’s best to use it for slight angle changes, and not much else. To stress test, I pushed the angle as far as the Photos app would allow. The result was an image with a slanted face, that looked more 2D than 3D (I will save you the horror of looking at my face with the eyes scrambled). As Apple works on improving the cloud models, though, this can get better.
Remember: All of these features are currently in beta testing. Apple may continue to improve the experience with subsequent betas and with iOS 27's official release in the fall.
