5 New iOS 27 Photos Features You Should Try

Your iPhone's Photos app has always been more than a place to store pictures. Over time, it has become a powerful library for organizing memories, editing images, searching through thousands of files, and even pulling useful moments out of videos.

With iOS 27, Apple has pushed that idea further.

The latest update introduces new ways to rate and organize photos, adjust the composition of an image after you've taken it, expand the edges of a picture, search using custom keywords, and save individual video frames as photos. Apple has also added more Apple Intelligence-powered editing capabilities to compatible iPhones.

Not every feature is available on every iPhone, either. Apple Intelligence features such as Reframe and Extend require an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone, including the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or iPhone 16 models and later, with availability also varying by language and region.

If you've just upgraded to iOS 27, here are five Photos features worth trying.

1. Rate Your Photos and Videos With Stars

Ever taken 30 nearly identical photos and struggled to decide which ones are actually worth keeping?

The Photos app now gives you another way to sort through those choices: star ratings.

You can rate individual photos and videos from one to five stars. This is particularly useful when you're reviewing a large batch of images, choosing pictures for an album, or trying to identify your favorite shots without immediately deleting everything else.

Apple lets you filter your library by rating, making it easier to return to the images you've marked as favorites.

How to turn on star ratings

1. Open the Photos app.

2. Tap Collections.

3. Tap your profile icon at the top.

4. Turn on Show Ratings Controls.

5. Open a photo or video.

6. Tap the rating control and select between one and five stars.

Once you've rated your media, you can use the Sort and Filter button to filter your library by rating.

This can be surprisingly useful if you regularly take multiple versions of the same photo. Instead of deleting images while you're still deciding, you can rate them first and come back to the highest-rated ones later.

And if you change your mind, you can remove or change the rating at any time.

2. Change the Perspective of a Photo With Reframe

Sometimes the photo you take is almost perfect.

The lighting works. The moment is right. Everyone is looking at the camera. But the framing is slightly off.

Maybe you stood a little too far to one side. Maybe the subject is too close to the edge. Or perhaps you wish you had captured the scene from a slightly different perspective.

That's where Reframe comes in.

Apple's Reframe tool uses Apple Intelligence to adjust the perspective of an existing photo. You can touch, drag, zoom, and reposition the image to create a different composition. The system then generates content around the original image where necessary to accommodate the new framing.

How to use Reframe

1. Open Photos.

2. Select the image you want to change.

3. Tap Edit.

4. Open Tools.

5. Select Reframe.

6. Touch and drag the image to adjust its perspective.

7. Use pinch gestures to zoom or reposition the composition.

8. Tap Reframe to apply the change.

9. Compare the new version with the original.

You can also undo the edit later if you decide the original composition worked better.

The interesting part is that Reframe isn't simply cropping your image. Apple describes the feature as using spatial models to shift the apparent point of capture, with generative models filling areas that become visible because of the perspective change.

That makes it particularly useful when a photo feels like it was taken just a few inches from the perfect angle.

3. Expand the Edges of Your Photos With Extend

Cropping usually means making an image smaller.

But what if you need the opposite?

Maybe you've captured a portrait that is too tightly framed. Perhaps you need additional space around a subject for text, a social media layout, or a different aspect ratio.

The new Extend tool can help.

Instead of cropping away part of the image, Extend expands the edges of the original frame. Apple Intelligence then generates additional content to fill the newly created space.

How to use Extend

1. Open the Photos app.

2. Select the photo.

3. Tap Edit.

4. Select Tools.

5. Tap Extend.

6. Pinch or drag the image to create the composition you want.

7. Tap Extend.

8. Save the finished image.

The feature can be useful when you're trying to fit an existing photograph into a particular design without cutting out an important part of the scene.

For example, imagine you've taken a beautiful horizontal landscape, but you need more breathing room around the subject for a banner. Instead of aggressively cropping the original, you can experiment with extending the edges.

As with other Photos edits, you can reset the change later if you want to return to the original.

4. Add Your Own Keywords to Photos and Videos

Your Photos library can become difficult to navigate once you've accumulated thousands of images.

You may remember that a particular photo was taken during a family trip, at a specific event, or during a particular year, but searching by location or date may not be enough.

iOS 27 gives you another option: custom keywords.

You can add your own tags to individual photos and videos and then search your library using those terms. Apple also lets you manage your keywords, rename them, delete them, or add frequently used ones to your favorites.

How to add a keyword

1. Open Photos.

2. Open a photo or video.

3. Tap the Info button or swipe up.

4. Tap Add Keywords.

5. Enter a word or phrase.

6. Tap Done.

For example, you could create keywords such as:

• Family trip

• Beach vacation

• Client event

• Baby's first birthday

• 2026 travel

• Work photos

Once you've added the keyword, open Search and type it. Photos will display matching media associated with that keyword.

This becomes particularly useful when you're managing a large library that contains different types of memories, projects, documents, screenshots, and personal photos.

Managing lots of photos across devices

Organization is only half the challenge when you have years of photos stored on your phone. At some point, you may also need to move those files to another device, create a backup, or send selected media elsewhere.

That's where a dedicated transfer tool can make the process less tedious.

With Smart Transfer, you can move different types of data between devices instead of manually sending files one at a time. For example, if you're switching phones and want to move your contacts, photos, videos, and other important files, a phone transfer workflow can help you consolidate the process.

Smart Transfer can also be useful when you need contacts files transfer alongside other personal data. Rather than treating contacts, media, and files as completely separate tasks, you can use the app to manage different parts of your device data in one place.

For people who frequently move information between devices, this can be especially helpful after a major iOS update. You can explore the Photos features on your current iPhone while keeping your important data organized and ready to move when needed.

5. Save Any Frame From a Video as a Photo

We've all done it.

You find the perfect moment in a video, pause it, take a screenshot, and then spend another few seconds cropping away everything around the image.

iOS 27 gives you a cleaner way to do this directly in Photos.

You can now save a selected frame from a video as a standalone photo. Apple added the feature specifically so you don't have to rely on a screenshot when you want to capture a particular moment from your footage.

How to save a video frame as a photo

1. Open Photos.

2. Select a video.

3. Play the video and pause it at the frame you want.

4. Tap the More button.

5. Select Save Video Frame as Photo.

The new image is then saved to your Photos library. Depending on how your library is sorted, you'll find it either at the bottom of the library or alongside the original video.

It's a small feature, but it solves a very common problem.

A funny expression, a great travel moment, a family gathering, or a split-second action shot can now become a photo without the extra screenshot-and-crop routine.

A Smarter Way to Manage the Photos You Keep

The bigger story behind these iOS 27 updates isn't just about adding more editing buttons.

It's about giving you more control over the memories already sitting on your iPhone.

You can now rate the photos you love, reshape imperfect compositions, expand images when you need more space, add your own organizational system with keywords, and pull individual moments out of videos. Together, these tools make the Photos app feel much more useful for people with large and constantly growing libraries.

But as your photo collection grows, managing the files outside your iPhone becomes important too.

If you're moving to another device, creating a local copy, or simply trying to keep important information accessible across devices, Smart Transfer can help simplify the process. Its file-sharing capabilities support wifi files sharing, allowing you to move files between compatible devices without turning every transfer into a separate manual task.

That can be particularly convenient when you're dealing with the aftermath of a phone upgrade. Instead of spending hours figuring out how to move contacts, photos, videos, and miscellaneous files individually, you can approach the transfer as one broader data-management task.

Which iOS 27 Photos Feature Should You Try First?

That depends on how you use your iPhone.

If your Photos library is overflowing with similar shots, star ratings can help you sort your favorites. If you often take photos that are almost perfectly framed, Reframe gives you another chance to improve the composition. If you need additional space around an image, Extend is worth experimenting with.

For anyone with a huge photo library, keywords may become one of the most practical additions because they give you a personal way to organize and search your media. And if you frequently record videos, Save Video Frame as Photo is an easy win.

The best part is that these features don't require you to rethink how you capture memories. They simply give you more options after you've pressed the shutter.

And sometimes, that's exactly what you need. The perfect photo isn't always the one you captured in the first second. With the right tools, it can be the one you discover, organize, and shape afterward.