It does now appear, however, that one compatibility pledge has been reversed. Apple initially claimed that new texture and grain controls in the Camera app would be available for anyone with an iPhone 16 or later, provided they update their handset to iOS 27. But as spotted by the Twitter/X user CID, the same page now indicates that these features are exclusive to photos taken with the iPhone 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max, and Duo.
“The new texture and grain controls in Photographic Styles will be available on iOS 27 on iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro…” begins the quoted text in what the poster claims is its original form before an update on September 11. Whereas after the update the same section indicates that the new controls “will be available for photos captured on iPhone 18 Pro models and… iPhone Duo.”
I haven’t been able to find exactly the same wording but I can confirm the change as indicated in a separate document.
At time of writing, Apple’s press release for the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max contains an endnote (4) about compatibility: “The new texture and grain controls will be available for photos captured on iPhone 18 Pro models and the Ultra Wide, Main, and Center Stage cameras on iPhone Duo.”
Apple
When I use the Wayback Machine to view an archived version of the same page from September 10, the wording of this note changes drastically: “The new texture and grain controls will be available in iOS 27 on iPhone models that support the latest generation of Photographic Styles. See supported models.” Those last two words are a link to this list which clearly, even now, includes those older handsets.
David Price / Foundry
Indeed Apple appears to have decoupled latest-gen Photographic Styles, a general feature which is still something offered on iPhone 16 and later, from the specific subset of texture and grain controls. These latter features now have a separate compatibility list, and this only contains the iPhone 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max, and Duo. However, that list pertains to the phones’ camera rather than the specific Photographic Styles tools.
