Apple has improved Photos in major and minor ways: improved and expanded AI-based editing tools, better results and metadata access, upgrades to iCloud Shared Album, and the ability to extract video frames.
Organization and metadata
It took many years, but you can finally apply keywords to media in the Photos app on an iPhone and iPad. Huzzah? (Keywords are a useful way to link images for searching and organization.) However, you can still only apply keywords to items one at a time, as opposed to singly or in selections of two or more on a Mac. To add keywords, tap the info button, then tap Add Keywords.
When you make a selection by tapping the Select button in the upper-right corner of any multiple-item view in Photos, a new Show Selected button appears at the bottom. Tap it, and it reveals just the items you chose. You can adjust the selection or view the images and videos in a carousel. Tap Deselect All to remove the current selection.
Apple adds two new albums in Collections > Utilities. Captured by Me contains images or videos you created using any iPhone or iPad, such as via the Camera app or by taking a screenshot. The Identity Documents album uses machine learning (not Apple Intelligence) to collect scans or photos of personally identifying documents. (Identity Documents hasn’t yet appeared for me in iOS.)
You’re missing a star
Apple had said you would be able to rate photos and videos on a 1-to-5 scale, typical of other photo-management apps, but this was coming to Apple’s ecosystem for the first time. This would add nuance to the existing favorite option, which is either on or off. However, it hasn’t appeared.
Shared Albums
Apple hasn’t shaken up iCloud Shared Albums in several years, and it has notable omissions, such as the ability to share higher-resolution versions.
In iOS 27/iPadOS 27 (and on macOS 27 and at iCloud.com), you have access to several new features. However, you must first upgrade an album: select the album in Collections > Shared Albums, tap the More button, then tap Upgraded Shared Album. This may take some time—minutes or longer—depending on the size of the items in the library and your internet connection.
After upgrading, you have access to the following:
- Full-resolution photos and videos are now supported across all common formats.
- You can filter by photos or videos. Tap the Filter button, then tap Media Types.
- There’s a Create Shared Album option for any existing album. Tap the More button, then tap Create Shared Album.
- Albums can be set to expire after 30 days, but only when created. After creating a Shared Album from an existing album or by tapping the Add button in the Collections > Shared Albums view, enable Make Album Temporary.
- You can create an upload link that allows anyone—not just people with access to the album—to upload images. With the album selected, tap the Share button, tap “Only invited people can join,” and choose Anyone with the Link. (This is similar to other kinds of sharing across iOS 27/iPadOS 27).
- A recent activity log lets you see changes made to the album, including emoji reactions. (This doesn’t yet appear to be in place.)
Other Photos additions
Three other changes, two new and one set of improvements, may be of interest.
You can extract a frame from a paused video to save as an image. Tap the More button and choose Save Video Frame.
Photos often decides to pause syncing to iCloud to avoid draining the battery, even when the battery is quite full. You can now go to Settings > Apps > Photos > Sync Immediately and choose For Today. This prioritizes syncing instead of preserving battery life for the remainder of the calendar day. If Low Power Mode or Low Data Mode are enabled, Photos will still pause until those modes are turned off, such as by recharging the phone for the former.
Slideshows can now be built from any album or even a selection of media, rather than relying on memories.
