The camera app in iOS 27 will gain some AI smarts, with a new Siri Camera Mode making Visual Intelligence more accessible to users.

Apple is widely expected to be bringing more AI functionality to the iPhone during WWDC 2026, including a much-delayed update to Siri. Now, it seems that the Siri revision will also extend to the camera app in iOS 27.

According to sources of Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, there will be a new Siri mode joining the existing photo and video modes inside the camera app. The idea is that users can toggle the mode and take a photograph, which can then be used as part of a query to ChatGPT or Siri itself.

Really, this isn't a massive leap forward for Apple, and more a slight rebranding of something that already exists.

Apple introduced Visual Intelligence with the iPhone 16, accessible from the Camera Control button on the side of the device. What's happening here is that the same feature is being incorporated into the Camera app itself rather than being a separate standalone interface.

There will be a bit of an update to the experience, with a new shutter button inspired by the Apple Intelligence logo instead of the plain white circle. The current Camera Control method will also work fine, but launch the camera app straight into Siri mode.

Functionally, the feature will be pretty similar to the existing Visual Intelligence. Dates and times could be extracted from a poster, for example, or it could be used as the basis for getting more contact details for the restaurant.

New for 2026 will be the ability to capture nutritional labels on food packaging, allowing it to be entered automatically into a dietary logging app. Similarly, it will be possible to extract contact details from the shot and to put it into a contact listing.

Beyond the camera app

This isn't the only way that Apple will be injecting more AI functions into iPhone photography. On Tuesday, Bloomberg said that the Photos app will get some more changes, beyond the existing Clean Up feature.

These AI elements will provide a variety of photo editing features, such as extending an image, reframing, enhancing, and contextual editing. For example, enhancements could change the color and lighting of a shot, or bump up the image quality.

Reframe will apparently use the tech behind spatial photos, so users can shift the perspective of the shot after it's been taken.

All of this will involve processing on-device, rather than in the cloud.