iOS 27.2 now stamps AI-generated iPhone images with an invisible watermark called SynthID.
Every Image Playground creation carries the mark, as do some AI-edited photos. This should prove really helpful for spotting fakes — but only if you know how to check.
How the SynthID watermark works
As AI tools become better, faster and more widely available, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell if you can believe what you see. Is that photo of a politician doing something incredibly stupid real, manipulated or created entirely by AI?
Google created SynthID to combat the growing problem by identifying AI-generated content. The mark hides itself in an image’s pixels instead of adding metadata that can vanish when you share or screenshot a picture. Google says SynthID doesn’t affect image quality and is designed to survive cropping, filters and even compression.
Apple announced its plan to add SynthID at WWDC26 in June, alongside a revamped Image Playground. That overhaul added photorealistic image generation to Apple’s AI app.
Not every AI edit gets a watermark
The release notes for iOS 27.2, which Apple released Monday, list SynthID support for both Photos and Image Playground.
All things made in Image Playground get the watermark, but edits in the Photos app are a different story. Some early testing shows the Extend and Reframe tools, which use AI to add to and change images, add the watermark to the resulting images.
However, the Clean Up tool — which erases elements from an image — appears to depend on the size of the edit. Small tweaks to AI-edited images did not add the watermark, but larger ones did. That means a quick touch-up might slip through unmarked, but a bigger edit won’t.
You need Google’s website to check for SynthID
Your iPhone can’t detect the SynthID watermark, as there’s no built-in option in Photos. Instead, you’ll need to upload an image to Google’s SynthID Detector website.
A clean result isn’t proof that a photo is real. The detector only recognizes watermarks from Google and its partners, meaning an image made with another AI tool can come back clean.
Still, SynthID can give you a clue when an image looks too good to be true.
Anurag Chawake is a tech-focused writer specializing in smartphones, apps and consumer technology. His interest in computers began during the Windows 98 era, eventually leading him to explore everything from operating systems to mobile devices and PC hardware. Anurag previously contributed to The Indian Express, covering Apple, Android, gaming and the broader technology landscape.
