When Apple launched Image Playground last year, the company described it as an easy way to quickly generate personalized original images through Apple Intelligence. However, following its release, the app faced criticism as some users were disappointed by its limitations and low-quality results.
For instance, one user was surprised to find that when requesting a "close-up image of a hand," Image Playground consistently generated a hand with six fingers. In another case, a user struggled to obtain simple descriptive images like "an elderly person" or "a flower."
Some even questioned the app's purpose, stating that compared to popular AI image generators, it felt rather basic. (Of course, not everyone disliked the app; some described it as an entertaining experience.)
Fast forward to this year’s WWDC, where the tech giant announced that it would enhance Image Playground by integrating ChatGPT, promising better and more advanced AI-generated imagery.
With the new ChatGPT integration, users will be able to explore styles beyond Image Playground’s previous emoji-centric creations.
Images can now be created in the following new styles: oil painting, watercolor, vector art, anime, and woodcut. Additionally, users can select a new "any style" option, allowing them to precisely describe what they want. These new styles will appear under the "ChatGPT Styles" banner.
In the past, users were limited to animation, illustration, sketches, and Genmoji styles.
Apple stated that Image Playground will send user descriptions to ChatGPT to generate images. The company emphasized that no information will be shared with ChatGPT without user consent.
By integrating ChatGPT into Image Playground, Apple is giving the app another chance to attract users while positioning its AI image creation tool as a more comprehensive competitor to other similar free applications.
Moreover, it makes sense for Apple to leverage ChatGPT to enhance Image Playground, especially since the company already uses OpenAI’s tools in other areas.
Last year, Apple announced that it would bring ChatGPT to Siri and other first-party apps, along with features integrated into its operating system. For Siri, ChatGPT is utilized when the assistant cannot answer a question on its own or when users specifically request that their queries be sent to ChatGPT. Apple has also integrated ChatGPT into system-level tools like writing aids, enabling users to generate, rewrite, and summarize text in apps like Notes and Mail.
The updated Image Playground app is expected to launch alongside iOS 26 this fall.
