Apple may add a photo authentication feature called Apple Reference Image to iOS 27, a tool designed to verify that a picture was taken with an iPhone camera.
9to5Mac identified signs of the feature in its analysis of the latest iOS 27 beta, where the tool appeared as part of Apple’s work on image provenance.
The feature would allow select sensor information and image metadata to be sent to Private Cloud Compute for verification. That process could confirm whether a photo originated from an iPhone camera.
A new Reference mode would need to be enabled in the iPhone camera for the authentication option to be available.
The feature is being developed as demand grows for tools that can verify the source of images amid the spread of AI-generated content. Current approaches have largely focused on applying digital watermarks to AI-generated images.
Apple already uses watermarking-related tools in Image Playground and in other image editing capabilities under development. Google is also expanding its SynthID AI watermarking program.
Reference Image could operate alongside those metadata-based watermarking efforts by confirming a photo’s provenance through device capture data.
The feature remains in beta testing, and it may not be included when iOS 27 is released publicly this fall.
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