Apple Reference Image: How the iPhone 18 Pro Proves a Photo Is Real

Apple Reference Image is a camera mode on the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max that signs the captured pixel data inside the sensor, then turns that signed data into a second, cryptographically signed copy of your photo that anyone can verify as authentic and not revoked. You keep shooting the normal photo. The reference image sits beside it in the Photos app as proof of what the sensor actually saw, and a viewer can compare that reference against the version you publish to see where the two