Apple's iOS 27.2 update has quietly added an invisible watermark to certain AI-made images on the iPhone, according to a MacRumors report published Monday.
The watermark is based on SynthID, a tool created by Google for flagging AI-generated content. Rather than living in an image's metadata, SynthID is embedded in the pixels themselves. Google says it does not noticeably change how a picture looks and is built to survive common changes such as cropping, filters and compression. MacRumors notes that Apple said in June it planned to support SynthID, and the feature is now live in iOS 27.2.
What gets marked
Per MacRumors, every image produced with Image Playground carries the watermark. Some photos edited with Apple Intelligence tools in the Photos app are marked too. In the publication's testing, edits made with Extend and Reframe included the watermark.
Clean Up appears to behave less consistently. MacRumors says small removals did not add a watermark, while larger edits did. That suggests the mark may depend on how much of an image is generated or altered, though the report does not say how Apple decides.
No built-in checker
The iPhone itself offers no way to see whether a picture has been watermarked. According to MacRumors, anyone who wants to check needs to use Google's SynthID Detector website. The report cites no further statement from Apple beyond the June plan to adopt the technology, and it describes MacRumors' own hands-on checks of the Photos tools as the only verification.
Why it matters
Invisible markers like this are one way platforms and tools are trying to help people tell synthetic images from photographs. Because the watermark sits in the pixels, it is intended to stay with a picture when it is shared or re-saved, unlike metadata, which is often stripped when an image is uploaded.
The details here come from MacRumors' testing rather than an Apple announcement, so the exact scope of which edits are marked may change as Apple documents the feature or updates the software. iOS 27.2 is available now for supported iPhones, and the update also broadens Siri AI and adds new languages, as previously reported.
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