How to Flip an Image on iPhone

Flip an image in the Photos app

Every iPhone running iOS 13 or later has a horizontal flip built into the photo editor. No third-party app required.

1. Open Photos and tap the image you want to flip.
2. Tap Edit in the top-right corner.
3. Tap the Crop/Rotate icon in the bottom toolbar — it looks like a square with a curved arrow around one corner.
4. Tap the flip icon near the top-left of the screen. It shows two triangles pointing at each other. The image mirrors left-to-right instantly.
5. Tap Done to save. The flipped version replaces the original in your library.

Changed your mind? Go back to Edit and tap Revert to Original at any time — the Photos app keeps a non-destructive copy until you explicitly revert.

Flip an image vertically on iPhone

The Photos app only offers a horizontal flip. There is no vertical flip button. Two workarounds:

• Rotate twice, then flip. In the same Crop/Rotate screen, tap the rotate icon (the arrow going around a square) twice to rotate the image 180°, then tap the flip icon. The combined result is a vertical flip. Tap Done.
• Use a browser tool. Open flip-image.com/flip-image-vertically in Safari, drop your photo in, and tap Flip Vertically. One step, and the file never leaves your phone.

The selfie mirror setting

Since iOS 14, the front camera saves selfies as you see them in the viewfinder — mirrored. Text in the photo appears reversed, and the parting in your hair switches sides. This surprises people who expect the saved photo to show what the camera actually captured.

To change this, go to Settings → Camera and toggle Mirror Front Camera off. Future selfies will save unmirrored — the way other people see you. Already-taken selfies are unaffected; flip them manually using the Photos method above.

Flipping in Markup, Files, and other apps

Markup — the annotation layer that appears in Mail, Notes, Files, and Screenshots — has a rotate button but no flip option. The same is true for Quick Look in the Files app. If you need to flip an image outside the Photos library, your options are a third-party editor or a browser tool.

The flip image tool works in Safari and Chrome on any iPhone. Tap Choose Files or drag from the Files app, pick your axis, and save the result to your camera roll or a folder. Nothing is uploaded — the flip happens entirely on-device using your browser.

Flipping multiple photos at once

The Photos app edits one image at a time. If you have a handful of product shots, scanned documents, or reference photos that all need mirroring, editing them individually gets tedious fast.

Open the flip image tool in Safari, select multiple images from your camera roll, flip them all in one pass, and download the results. Processing stays in-browser — nothing is uploaded to a server, and there is no file-size limit.

Automate flipping with Shortcuts

If you flip images regularly, the Shortcuts app can trim it to a single tap. Build a shortcut with these actions:

1. Receive input from Share Sheet (Images only).
2. Flip Image — set Direction to Horizontal (or Vertical).
3. Save to Photo Album.

Now select a photo, tap the Share button, choose your shortcut, and the flipped copy lands in your library. You can extend this to accept multiple images — the Flip Image action processes each one in sequence.

HEIC, JPEG, PNG — does the format matter?

iPhones shoot in HEIC by default (High Efficiency). The Photos editor handles HEIC natively — flipping a HEIC photo keeps it in HEIC with no quality loss. If you need the flipped version as JPEG or PNG (for uploading to a platform that doesn't accept HEIC), the flip image tool outputs in the same format you provide or lets you pick a different one.