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The most amazing magic trick ever iOS 27coming later this year, is New photo editing mode This is like something out of Blade Runner. With a flash, a still shot becomes transformable. You can turn the angle, and the image becomes 3D. You can change the shot a little, and repaint the environment around it.
As a VR/AR wearer for years, and someone who spends a lot of time in it Apple Vision ProI nodded when I saw the reveal in Apple Worldwide Developers Conference WWDC 2026 Developer event. I can see the themes. This feature showcases the 3D tools that Apple has already been using for a while, and expands them outward in cool ways. And as with that 3D tilted spatial frame shot, which I’m now trying out on my own photos in iOS 27 developer beta, I want to see what else is around the bend.
I think it’s about more than just photo editing. Much more.
This is me standing between Apple’s Jeff Norris and Steve Sinclair after a headset meeting last year, where they discussed personalities while fleshing out the characters. This year’s Vision Pro will use a similar Gaussian spraying technology to turn panoramic images into 3D environments inside the headset with VisionOS 27.
A step towards erasable worlds
The set of tools Apple uses to achieve these 3D effects, called Gaussian splatting, is exactly the same AI model that makes my body Your avatar becomes a 3D character on Vision Pro headphones, and why Apple Maps now displays clearer 3D maps. It’s a technology I’ve seen emerging for years, and it’s already turning 3D objects and environments (and even videos) into shockingly convincing walkable worlds.
The apps on Vision Pro actually display Gaussian patches covering entire city blocks that have been captured and transformed into stunning worlds. I Present the Police Award For some of the best this winter, in fact. (You can explore the award-winning Kiefermarkt Splat Parish Church(Screenshot below, to see a nice example.) Meta’s Quest headphones Your space can be cleared And creating walkable 3D replicas also using the technology to stunning effect.
For me, it represents the future of where photography and video is headed, and the way we can represent our memories. But for Apple, this technology hasn’t appeared in its camera app… yet.
Apple has been slowly tinkering with its own technologies, presenting them in thoughtful and diverse ways. This year at WWDC, Apple showed off its Spatial reworking on iOS, as well as a new version Panoramic image conversion tool On Vision Pro which turns previously captured panoramas into wraparound 3D environments you can then do your work in, revamping 3D map views that haven’t made the immersive move in any Vision Pro mode, though Google Maps 3D was what impressed me most Samsung Galaxy XR Headphones, released last year.
The Pfarrkirche Kefermarkt, which won the Polys Prize this year, is a full 3D scan of the church using Gaussian chips.
Cuts form around the edges
I I spoke to Apple’s vision team last year About the characters in Vision Pro, when Apple first discussed its use of Gaussian spray as its secret sauce in capturing those amazing facial shots. Apple is using the same Gaussian spray models in new iOS 27/VisionOS 27 features this time, but with a new effect.
To me, spatial reframing is more like a more interactive version of the photo-morphable spatial scenes of yesteryear, which can be viewed in impressive 3D on Vision Pro (or by tilting your phone back and forth). It also has similar limitations, in that you can’t delve into the image or really change everything. It’s a gradual set of angles, generated by AI from which someone could be slightly behind, or out of range.
However, the freedom to reinstall a new angle and make it permanent is new, and this level of control gives me more of that feeling I get when I step into full 3D Gaussian shots.
Naturally, larger scans need more images to stitch together. This could be Apple’s next trick, since developers are already doing this elsewhere.
I’d like a way for Apple to combine multiple images of a place into an entire scene, or recreate a space I can walk through. Now the panorama conversion tool in VisionOS 27, which I haven’t tried yet, is almost there. It wraps around the image and makes it an ambient experience, without the walking.
I think it’s coming. But Apple Needs immersive glasses Or headphones that are actually affordable First, Apple doesn’t even expect to have any smart glasses until next year — those models may not have displays on board to start. But the $3,500 Vision Pro headphones can easily perform full room scans in ways that Apple can handle through its own apps. iPhones could improve their camera tools, too.
Ultimately, this will be the future of what immersive videos and photos truly mean. Now, we’re taking a peek at it all in plain sight.
