Images generated with Image Playground and some photos edited with Apple Intelligence on iPhone now include a hidden SynthID watermark. Apple announced plans to add SynthID support in June, and the feature is live in iOS 27.2.
SynthID is a Google-created tool that embeds a pixel-level watermark in images and videos rather than adding metadata. Google says it does not affect image quality and that the watermark is meant to survive cropping, filters and compression. SynthID is used by Google, Apple, OpenAI and others.
SynthID watermark: how it works and how to check
There is no option on the iPhone to detect SynthID watermarks; to check for them you must use the SynthID Detector website.
When tested, photos edited with the Photos app showed mixed results: images altered with Extend and Reframe contained SynthID watermarks when checked, while Clean Up edits depended on the size of the change — small Clean Up edits did not add a watermark, but larger Clean Up edits did. Images created with Image Playground all contained the SynthID watermark.
