Now that the iPhone's iOS 18.2 update is out, you might have noticed a brand new app on your iPhone 15 Pro and 16 series device—Image Playground. This is an AI image generator built into your iPhone, powered by Apple Intelligence. Image Playground also works on iPads and Macs that support Apple Intelligence, so even if you're on Android, you might still be able to use it. I've been running iOS 18.2 for a while thanks to the beta, and here's everything I've discovered about Apple's first dip into AI imagery.
I struggle to come up with useful text prompts for AI image generators, but Image Playground makes this process easy. While you have the option to type a sentence or two to generate images, the app also lets you choose from a bunch of preset themes such as fantasy, chef, forest, etc. Each of these themes appears above the text box for your prompt. You can combine multiple themes and add a text prompt to quickly create a detailed suggestion for Image Playground to work with.
You also have the option to hit the + button to choose photos from your library to upload as part of your prompt, and there's a profile icon that lets you select a person from your photo library as the image suggestion. Finally, you can generate images in either an "animation,""illustration," or "sketch" style. It's a bit limiting to have to select from these prebaked options, but it helps take away the complexity of describing a cohesive aesthetic over text, and the inability to generate photorealistic images should help prevent deepfakes.
Overall, I was quite impressed with Image Playground's ability to generate images even without any custom text prompt, although I'm glad the option is there. It should make the tool approachable for experts and beginners alike.
While trying out Image Playground, I was also impressed by its speed. I tried a few different prompts of varying degrees of complexity, and the app always generated an image within seconds. I was in a forest with spotty internet connectivity during some of these tests and even then, the app delivered its results quite fast. This is because a lot of the processing happens on-device, and as a result, my iPhone 16 Pro Max got slightly warm after generating around 15-20 images.
But while you'll get your first result in record time, it's not the only one you'll get, since swiping left on your result will show more options as they're available. Typically, the app would quickly generate 3-5 results for me per prompt, with one of them usually being close enough to what I wanted.
You can also try multiple styles per prompt. I used Image Playground to generate a picture of Lifehacker writer Khamosh Pathak attending an Indian wedding, and the final result worked best in the animation style. The illustration and sketch styles may work better for things like a profile picture on social media.
If you're looking for a great use case for Image Playground, look no further than how it's been implemented in Notes. You can now draw a sketch in Notes and ask AI to turn it into art. This can be great to jot down your ideas and quickly pair them with images to help you visualize them. When you create a new note in the Notes app, just tap the pen icon in the tool palette and create a sketch. Then, tap the Image Wand icon (it looks like a stage magician's magic wand), circle the sketch, and optionally add a description to allow Apple Intelligence to turn your sketch into a more detailed AI image. It'll automatically start in the "sketch" style, but pressing the + icon next to the image will allow you to swap styles. If you don't add a description, Image Wand will pull context from your notes themselves to help generate your image. Similarly, you technically don't even need a base sketch, since Image Wand can also text from your notes to generate an image from scratch.
Note that this feature works on iPhone and iPad, but not on Mac.
Image Playground is also integrated into Messages, and allows you to generate images while you're chatting with someone. This feature works on your iPhone, iPad, and the Mac. Simply tap the + button in any chat and select Image Playground. Now, type a description and you'll be able generate an image from within Messages and send it right to your contact. This is probably the way I see myself using Image Playground most in the future—for some harmless fun with friends.
AI-generated images tend to appear impressive at first, but when you look closely, you'll sometimes be able to spot mistakes. In the aforementioned prompt involving Lifehacker's Khamosh Pathak, one of the results generated a hand with no nails and only three fingers. In other prompts, the app generated a knife with a handle so bent that it looked broken, and fantastical fruits that no human has ever seen. Apple clearly displays a warning that Image Playground may generate unexpected results, but the onus is on you to spot them.
As long as you're using this app to generate fun photos for entertainment, it's really enjoyable. I just wouldn't use it for serious work.
