Part of the Apple Intelligence toolkit, Image Playground is a clever AI image generation tool that’s available in iOS 18.2 and macOS Sequoia 15.2.
Apple’s Image Playground allows users to produce fun, original images using generative AI, and it’s one of the standout Apple Intelligence features we’ve tried so far.
We’ve detailed everything you need to know about Apple’s Image Playground tool, including how it works and which devices will support the feature.
What is Image Playground?
In a nutshell, Image Playground is an AI image generation tool that allows users to quickly create images on their Apple Intelligence-compatible device.
Users can create images in a choice of three image styles: Animation, Illustration or Sketch, and then select from a range of concepts to get started. These concepts, which include themes, costumes, accessories and places, can then be refined by the user who will simply need to type a description.
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Where can you access Image Playground?
There are a few ways to access Image Playground. While the tool is built directly into Apple’s own apps such as Messages, Notes, Keynote, Freeform, Pages and more, it can also be accessed through third-party apps that adopt the new Image Playground API.
There’s also a dedicated Image Playground app which allows you to create images and share them through other apps, including social media.
Using Image Playground through Messages allows you to quickly create images to send to your chats, and see personalised suggested concepts related to your conversations. Apple offers the example that if a user is messaging a group about going hiking, they’ll see suggested images based on their friends, destination and the activity involved.
Or when using Apple’s Notes app, users can use the Image Wand tool to turn a rough sketch into a completed image. Simply use either your finger or an Apple Pencil to draw a circle around your drawing and Image Wand will create a complementary image.
Not only that but you can also circle a space in your Note and Image Wand will use the surrounding context to create a relevant image.
What is Image Wand?
Image Wand is part of Image Playground and is found via the Notes app on iPads that support Apple Intelligence. As mentioned above, it allows you to transform rough sketches and empty spaces into complete, AI-generated images.
At the time of writing, Image Wand is only found in the Notes app and we don’t know whether Apple will bring it to other apps, such as Pages or Freeform.
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How does Image Playground work?
Apple explains that all images are created on-device, which gives “users the freedom to experiment with as many images as they want”.
Apple Intelligence as a whole is integrated into compatible iPhones, iPads and Macs through on-device processing which means while the toolkit is aware, it doesn’t collect your personal information.
Which devices support Image Playground?
All the Apple devices that support Apple Intelligence will allow access to Image Playground. This includes the complete iPhone 16 series lineup, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, all Macs running on Apple’s M1-chip or older, and the iPad Air and Pro models.
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