AI-generated editorial illustration; not a documentary photograph.
Apple Photos in iOS 27 introduces new organization, editing and sharing tools for iPhone and iPad users. According to an iDownloadBlog guide published September 18, 2026, the update adds star ratings, searchable keywords, video-frame extraction and shared albums that accept contributions from Android and Windows users. Most changes are also available with macOS 27 Golden Gate.
More Ways to Organize Photos
A new Captured By Me collection gathers pictures taken through the Camera app across a user's current and previous iPhones. Photos also groups images of passports, driver's licenses and similar cards under Identity Documents. Users can assign one to five stars to photos and videos after enabling the rating feature, then filter the library by rating. Keywords added from an item's information view provide another searchable way to label media.
New Editing and Capture Options
Users can save an individual video frame as a photo without taking a screenshot. The app also gains AI-assisted Reframe and Extend features: Reframe changes the apparent camera angle of an existing image, while Extend generates additional content around its edges. The guide says Clean Up can remove larger and more complicated objects than before, but it provides no independent comparison of the updated model's performance.
Shared Albums Open Up
Shared albums now support reactions with any emoji, activity logs and filtering by contributor. Android and Windows PC users can be invited to add media, removing the previous Apple-only participation restriction. Temporary albums expire automatically after 30 days and do not consume the owner's iCloud allowance.
Permanent shared albums now retain full-resolution photos and videos, but their contents count toward the owner's iCloud storage. Media contributed by non-Apple participants is included in that usage, making the quality improvement a potentially significant storage trade-off for large or active albums.
Faster Syncing and Transfers
A Sync Immediately control can prioritize uploading the day's new items to iCloud instead of leaving them in the normal queue. The guide also reports that AirDrop transfers can be up to 80% faster in iOS 27. Other changes include quicker loading in Collections, faster display of recent camera captures and a dedicated preview showing all currently selected items before an action is applied.
Source: New features added to iPhone Photos app in iOS 27
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