Apple is working on a new framework that will allow third-party photo apps to back up images more reliably. Here are the details.
A long-standing request by photo app developers is about to be granted
Alongside the (likely) final stages of development ahead of the official iOS 26.1 release, Apple has also been working on a few new frameworks that should make their way to developers sooner rather than later.
One of them, as we covered here, will let developers join Apple’s new migration feature to and from Android.
Another, as Apple detailed in a new article on its documentation blog, will let developers enable background photo backups through PhotoKit.
Here’s how Apple describes the new feature:
In iOS 26.1 and later, PhotoKit provides a new Background Resource Upload extension type that enables photo apps to provide seamless cloud backup experiences. The system manages uploads on your app’s behalf, and processes them in the background even when people switch to other apps or lock their devices. The system calls your extension when it’s time to process uploads, and it automatically handles network connectivity, power management, and timing to provide reliable processing.
This means that third-party photo apps and even cloud backup services will finally be able to back up images automatically and reliably in the background, rather than relying on workarounds or waiting for the user to reopen the app.
In the highly detailed documentation article, Apple breaks down what developers will need to do in order to tap into the new feature, with steps including:
- Create and configure the extension target
- Enable the extension
- Process upload jobs
- Retry failed jobs
- Acknowledge completed jobs
- Create upload jobs
- Handle extension termination
Some of aspects of the new feature will require express user consent, while others will run automatically once the extension is enabled. Apple also notes that multiple aspects of the framework are still in beta, which means they are subject to change before the final release to developers.
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