Craig Federighi Announces Apple Intelligence Updates at WWDC 2026, Including Standalone Siri App

At WWDC 2026 on Monday, Craig Federighi, Apple's Senior VP of Software Engineering, announced a suite of new updates to Apple Intelligence, including Siri AI in a standalone app that is more conversational and more expressive.

“Apple today announced a significant upgrade to the editing features available in Apple Photos on iPhone, Mac and Vision Pro”

9to5Mac

Federighi said the vision for Apple Intelligence is grounded in personal context and built with privacy at every step, adding, "That is our vision for Apple Intelligence."

9to5Mac

Apple said the next-generation Apple Foundation Models would be at the heart of the new tools, running on private servers using cloud compute and powered by Google Gemini models.

Federighi also emphasized privacy, saying, "Privacy in AI is non-negotiable," and he said users' conversations would not be used for AI training.

The updates include new Apple Intelligence features in apps like Photos, Messages, and Mail, with members of the Apple Developer Program able to test them starting today and a public beta arriving next month before a free software update this fall.

Apple’s WWDC 2026 software updates add Apple Intelligence-powered image editing in the Photos app, including Spatial Reframing, which lets users adjust a photo's composition after the shot is taken.

Apple also confirmed new tools including Extend, Reframe, and an upgraded Clean Up, with Engadget describing Spatial reframing as using AI to simulate a repositioned camera perspective and generating AI content to create the illusion.

Cult of Mac

Engadget said users can touch and drag to find the new perspective they like best, and it noted that despite the feature's name, it works with all photos, not just spatial ones.

9to5Mac reported that when saving a Reframe edit, the phone sends the image to a cloud server for processing, while it also said the features are powered by a combination of on-device and cloud models.

TechCrunch described the Reframe workflow as showing a blur around the edges of the original image while the app fills the gaps later with Apple’s generative models, and it said Extend can expand images and straighten a crooked horizon without cropping out anything important.

Mashable said the Apple Intelligence tools will arrive in a public beta next month and then launch publicly as a free software update this fall, with testing available starting today for members of the Apple Developer Program.

“iOS 27 gets new AI photo editing tools Spatial reframing will allow you to change perspective after shooting”

Engadget

YugaTech said the presentation covered platform refinements, trust and safety, and Apple Intelligence built around a completely rebuilt Siri, and it named macOS Golden Gate as the next version of macOS.

YugaTech also described performance gains including app launch speed up to 30% faster on iPhone and iPad, with AirDrop transfers up to 80% faster and iPad file transfers to external drives up to 5x faster.

For Photos specifically, Gadget Hacks said Apple confirmed that Apple Intelligence powers image editing in Photos broadly and that the tool lineup rolls out this fall on supported devices set to a supported language across iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27.

TechCrunch said the Reframe feature can preview the effect in real time, and it described Cleanup as removing distractions with better quality and more realistic infill using generative AI.