GoKawiilThe most dazzling magic trick in iOS 27, coming later this year, is a new photo-editing mode that's like something out of Blade Runner. With a glimmer, a still shot becomes shiftable. You can turn the angle, and the picture becomes 3D. You can change the shot a bit, and the environment repaints around it.
As a VR/AR device wearer for years, and someone who spends a lot of time in Apple Vision Pro, I nodded when I saw the reveal at Apple's WWDC 2026 developer event. I can see the threads. This feature is flexing 3D tools that Apple's already been playing with for a while now, expanding them outward in fascinating ways. And like with that 3D-tilted spatially reframed shot, which I'm now trying on my own photos on iOS 27's developer beta, I want to see what else is around the bend.
It's about more than just editing photos, I think. A lot more.
That's me standing between Apple's Jeff Norris and Steve Sinclair after a meeting in-headset last year, discussing Personas while embodying Personas. This year the Vision Pro will use similar Gaussian splatting tech to convert panoramic photos to 3D environments in-headset with VisionOS 27. Apple
A step towards scannable worlds
The toolset Apple's using to make these 3D effects happen, called Gaussian splatting, is exactly the same AI model that makes my body become a 3D Persona avatar on Vision Pro headsets, and what makes Apple Maps now show remarkably clearer 3D maps. It's a technology I've seen emerging for years now, that already turns 3D objects and environments (and even videos) into shockingly convincing walkthrough worlds.
Apps on Vision Pro already showcase Gaussian splats that cover entire city blocks captured and converted into incredible worlds. I presented a Polys Award for some of the best of them this winter, in fact. (You can explore the award-winning Pfarrkirche Kefermarkt splat, screenshot below, to see a beautiful example.) Meta's Quest headsets can scan your space and create 3D walkable replicas using the tech, too, to stunning effect.
To me, it represents the very future of where photography and videos are headed, and the way we can represent our memories. But for Apple, that tech hasn't emerged into its own camera app... yet.
Apple is slow-playing Gaussian splatting in its own tech, introducing it in thoughtful and various ways. This year at WWDC, Apple showcased it in Spatial Reframing on iOS, plus a new panorama photo conversion tool on the Vision Pro that turns previously shot panoramas into wraparound 3D environments you can then do your work in, and revamped 3D Maps views that haven't made an immersive move into any Vision Pro mode, although Google's 3D Maps were what wowed me the most on Samsung's Galaxy XR headset, released last year.
The Pfarrkirche Kefermarkt, which won a Polys Award this year, is a full 3D scan of a church using Gaussian splats. Screenshot by Scott Stein/CNET
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