There’s a big problem with the iPhone’s Photos app.

My main device these days continues to be the iPhone 15 Pro, but I’ve used many Android smartphones since coming to Digital Trends. One of my favorite cell phone brands is Google Pixel, which has a suite of powerful photo editing tools and great camera hardware.

Google first added the Magic Eraser feature on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. Love using. Google then added Magic Editor on the Pixel 8 series, which uses generative AI to make edits that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. There are also tools like Photo Unblur, which is great for enhancing older photos or images taken with lower-quality sensors.

While some of these features were only available on the latest Pixel smartphones, Google recently announced that it will bring these photo editing tools to all Android smartphones and even iPhones through the Google Photos app starting May 15th. Announced. There are no subscription fees or fees. The included tools are Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, Portrait Light, and Magic Editor. Unless you have a Pixel device or a premium Google One plan (2TB or more), Magic Editor only gets 10 saves per month for all users, but that’s the only caveat.

When I heard this announcement, I realized how far behind Apple is with native photo editing tools in its Photos app. It has been lagging behind Google for a while, but this update has made it even worse.

Apple has a lot to catch up on

I always carry my iPhone 15 Pro with me, so it’s primarily the device I take the most photos with. Many of my photos these days are of my daughter and I don’t usually edit them unless I have to (I just have to) Method Too many). However, for work-related photos, I often do some light editing before uploading them.

I mostly use Photo’s native editing tools to make simple edits, unless I need something special that can’t be done in a photo app. But sometimes you only notice it after the fact, like dust spots on the back of your phone or stains you didn’t wipe off beforehand. Hey, it happens!

However, the Apple Photos app doesn’t offer a way to remove unwanted objects in images or clean up photos before sharing. These edits will require you to rely on third-party apps or, starting May 15th, use the Google Photos app.

It’s a little embarrassing that the Apple Photos app doesn’t have a tool like Magic Eraser. You can now adjust portrait depth and lighting, make basic photo adjustments, add filters, and use cropping tools. In other words, just the basics.

Google’s Magic Eraser may be the first thing that comes to mind for many, but Samsung will also be bringing its own version of the tool to Galaxy devices in 2021, aptly named Object Eraser. And with the release of Galaxy AI this year, it’s better than ever. I haven’t done a side-by-side comparison of the two yet, but both are pretty good at removing unnecessary objects and organizing photos. Google and Samsung also offer their own versions of generative AI editing for even more elaborate edits.

Could iOS 18 be the answer?

There’s been a lot of talk about Apple researching and investing in generative AI, even partnering with Google on Gemini and possibly even using ChatGPT in future versions of iOS.

With Apple’s WWDC 2024 just around the corner and rumors that iOS 18 will be its “biggest update yet,” it’s likely that some form of AI will appear in the iPhone’s next software update. After all, nearly every other competitor has implemented some form of mobile AI these days, so Apple would be foolish not to join in.

Of course, even if Apple does implement some AI in iOS 18, it might start small, like natural language conversations for writing, summarization, better automation with shortcuts, and perhaps improvements to Siri. I would love to see a generative AI photo editing tool, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t come to iOS this year.

Either way, Apple’s Photos app is noticeably lacking in tools compared to its competitors. We hope Apple has plans to improve the Photos app soon. Because I would like to avoid having to use multiple apps for photo editing if possible. It’s cumbersome, unwieldy, and bad for Apple. It’s time to fix this.

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