Apple announced that images produced through its new generative editing features in iOS 27 will carry SynthID markers, an invisible watermarking technology developed by Google, to preserve information about AI involvement. The initiative places Apple SynthID AI photo watermarking at the center of the company’s effort to address image provenance as generative tools become more common across Apple Intelligence. Apple announced iOS 27 at WWDC 2026, extending support back to the iPhone 11 lineup. According to John McCormack, Apple’s Vice President of Camera and Photos Software Engineering, the marker is embedded directly into an image rather than relying solely on metadata, and is designed to remain invisible to users while being detectable by systems identifying AI-generated content. “Anything that is generative coming out of Apple, the generative content will be marked with this thing called SynthID,” McCormack said. McCormack noted that SynthID offers a more durable solution than traditional metadata, which can disappear when images are exported or shared, because the marker becomes part of the image itself. Apple sees the technology as complementary to metadata.