WhatsApp is adding a generative AI tool to its photo editor that fills in what the camera didn’t capture. A Meta AI-powered image expansion feature is now reaching some iPhone users, mainly testers in the app’s TestFlight beta, with some users of the public version also reporting access.
The process is simple. Pick a photo in a chat and WhatsApp opens its drawing editor, where a new expand option sits alongside the existing AI effects. Tap it and Meta AI spends a few seconds analysing the image before generating a wider version, adding scenery, background and detail beyond the original frame. The result appears in the editor, ready to send. If you don’t like it, an undo button restores the original so you can try again and get a different result. The tool also works with status updates, where tightly cropped photos often look out of place.
The technology isn’t new. Adobe introduced generative expansion in Photoshop years ago, ChatGPT can extend images on request, and iPhone owners with Apple Intelligence already have a similar Extend tool built into the Photos app, which lets them pinch or drag past an image’s edges. What’s different is where WhatsApp is putting it: right in the sending flow of an app used by billions of people, one step away from a conversation.
That convenience has a cost. An expanded image is no longer simply a photo of what happened. It’s a photo plus Meta AI’s guess about what surrounded it. That’s harmless for widening a sunset or fixing an awkward crop. In a messaging app where images are often treated as evidence of where someone was or what something looked like, AI-generated edges can quietly mislead. It’s also unclear whether WhatsApp will label expanded images as AI-edited when recipients see them, and how that is handled will matter.
The feature also fits Meta’s wider plan. The company has been adding Meta AI across WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, and making generative tools part of everyday actions like sending a photo is an effective way to get people used to using them.
As with most WhatsApp beta features, there’s no official release date. However, because the tool is also appearing in the Android beta and has already reached some users on the public iOS app, a wider rollout looks likely sooner rather than later. Availability may vary by region, since access to Meta AI features has differed by market in the past.
Once anyone can widen a photo before forwarding it, the bigger question is whether people will still trust the edges of the images they receive.