Apple is bringing some seriously impressive AI-powered editing tools to the Photos app. One feature in particular looks like it could change how people rescue imperfect shots.
By dragging the image around, Photos can generate new content to fill in areas that weren’t originally captured. This creates the illusion that the picture was framed differently from the start.
It’s a clever twist on generative AI editing. Rather than completely altering an image, the feature creates new content only where needed to accommodate the shift in perspective. This helps the final result stay faithful to the original scene. Of course, it raises the question of what a photo actually is in the age of AI, which is a slightly scary thought.
For anyone who’s ever taken a great photo only to realise the composition was slightly off, Spatial Reframing could be a surprisingly useful fix. It feels like the kind of feature that would have seemed impossible on a smartphone just a few years ago.
That’s not the only upgrade coming to Photos, either.
Apple is also giving its Cleanup tool a major refresh. The feature removes unwanted objects and distractions from images and produces more realistic results. This applies even in complex scenes where filling in the background can be tricky.
Alongside that is a new Extend tool, which allows users to expand the background of a photo or change its aspect ratio without awkward cropping. That could prove handy when reformatting images for social media, presentations or different screen sizes.
Taken together, the updates look like one of the biggest improvements to photo editing on Apple devices in years. Rather than requiring users to jump into third-party apps, the company is bringing increasingly advanced editing tools directly into Photos.
Apple says the new features will work with older images as well as photos captured on non-Apple cameras. Therefore, they are useful across entire photo libraries rather than just new shots.
Apple will process the tools using its Private Cloud Compute system. The company says this keeps user data protected while handling the more demanding AI-powered edits.
