At the heart of every iPhone is the Camera app and, after several useful changes over the past two years, Apple is reportedly planning to make it far more customisable. According to a new report from Bloomberg, users will be able to choose which features appear in the app and even decide where they are placed.

If the changes make it into the next set of iOS updates, expected to be announced during the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference in June, the app could become a delight for photographers. The report says the app will retain the current set of default widgets, but starting with iOS 27, users will “be able to switch over to an ‘advanced’ array of options or choose their own items”. There will also reportedly be a new “Add Widgets” tray, with widgets split into three categories: basic, manual and settings.

Users may also be able to swap in controls for the timer and Photo Styles. There are expected to be new grid and level options built directly into the app as well, according to Mark Gurman.

Among the features users may choose to display within the app are controls for flash, exposure, timer and resolution.

The updated app may also include a new Siri mode alongside Photo, Video and other options, allowing users to tap into Apple’s Visual Intelligence capabilities. It could make tasks such as identifying plants or translating text into another language much easier.

The bigger changes are expected to arrive in the form of a rebuilt Siri. Instead of functioning merely as a voice assistant, Siri could become an always-on agent capable of tapping into personal data and taking actions across apps. Bloomberg reports that Siri will also be able to conduct back-and-forth conversations through a chatbot-style interface.

Further, Siri is expected to become more deeply integrated into the Dynamic Island interface, the on-screen element Apple first introduced in 2022. When a user says the Siri wake word or holds down the power button to activate the assistant, a Siri animation may appear at the top-centre of the iPhone interface.

The Siri upgrade is also expected to include AI-powered web search and, for the first time, a standalone app.

In recent times, many have argued that Apple has fallen behind in the AI race, especially given the relatively limited updates to Siri since it first appeared on the iPhone in 2011. Siri now needs to catch up with competing products from Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic. Personalisation features for Siri — first mentioned at WWDC 2024 — are still under development and may finally arrive this year.

At the moment, Apple users can rely on OpenAI’s ChatGPT for certain AI-related tasks, but users may soon be able to choose rival AI models as well. As of January, Apple had reportedly signed a deal with Google to use Gemini to help power the company’s future foundation models.