Apple Revamps Image Playground with ChatGPT Integration, Boosting AI Image Generation Capabilities

Apple is salvaging Image Playground with a boost from ChatGPT | TechCrunch

When Apple first unveiled Image Playground last year, the company touted it as a quick and easy way to generate personalized, original images with the help of Apple Intelligence. Upon launch, the app was met with skepticism, as some users were disappointed by its limitations and low-quality results. For example, one Reddit user was surprised to find that Image Playground kept generating an image of a hand with six fingers when prompted to create an "up close image of a hand." In another instance, a user was unable to receive images of simple descriptions, such as "old man" or "flower." Some people even questioned what the point of the app was, noting that it seemed juvenile when compared to popular AI image generators. (Of course, not everybody dislikes the app; some have described it as being a fun experience). Fast-forward to this year's WWDC, where the tech giant announced that it's going to boost Image Playground with a ChatGPT integration, which should allow for a better, more advanced AI image generation service. With the new ChatGPT integration, users will be able to access more styles that move beyond the emoji-like creations that Image Playground has become known for. Images can be created in the following new styles: Oil Painting, Watercolor, Vector, Anime, and Print. In addition, people will be able to select a new "Any Style" option that allows them to describe exactly what they want. These new styles will be visible under a banner that reads "ChatGPT style." In the past, users were limited to Animation, Illustration, Sketch, and Genmoji styles. Apple says that Image Playground will send a user's description to ChatGPT to generate an image. The tech giant notes that it won't share anything with ChatGPT without users' permission. By integrating ChatGPT into Image Playground, Apple is giving the app another shot at attracting users while positioning its AI image creation tool as a more well-rounded competitor to other similar free apps. Plus, it makes sense for Apple to leverage ChatGPT to boost Image Playground, especially since the company has already tapped OpenAI's tools in other ways. Last year, Apple announced that it was bringing ChatGPT to Siri and other first-party apps and capabilities across its operating systems. With Siri, the assistant leverages ChatGPT when it's unable to answer a question or its own or when a user specifically asks Siri to send an inquiry to ChatGPT. Apple has also integrated ChatGPT into system-wide tools like Writing Tools, allowing users to generate, rewrite, and summarize text in apps like Notes and Mail.

Image Playground on your iPhone is getting a major boost -- thanks to ChatGPT

Last year, Apple unveiled Image Playground -- a tool to turn your descriptions or people from your photo library into AI images. It was plagued with issues, complaints, and users feeling it was lagging behind the best AI image generators. But now Apple is bringing it back -- with a little help. The company announced at WWDC 2025 it is integrating ChatGPT into Image Playground in order to turn things around. This should allow for better, more advanced AI image generation while using the software. Previously, Image Playground was limited to fairly generic emoji-style images. Now, through the integration of a ChatGPT setting, users can choose to generate an image in any art style or, they can drill down to oil painting, watercolour, vector, anime or print. Whenever a user tries to generate an image through Image Playground like this, Apple will send the request off to ChatGPT to generate the image. However, Apple has made it clear that it won't share any personal information with ChatGPT without the user's permission. Apple is making a clear effort to push Image Playground further. Not only does it have integration with ChatGPT, but the feature is being made more accessible throughout iOS. Users can generate unique images that fit a conversation in Messages and set that as their background. It can also be accessed through Apple's Shortcuts update. Apple Intelligence may be lagging behind its competition, but the company's deepening relationship with OpenAI could help make up ground. Apple announced it was bringing ChatGPT to Siri last year and has continued to cram ChatGPT features into a various parts of its apps, like Notes and Mail. This is a direction other companies have used successfully, piggy-backing on the success of the largest AI models to boost an ecosystem without having to produce a competitive AI model -- something both expensive and time-consuming. The feature isn't quite here yet. ChatGPT integration in Apple Playground will launch alongside iOS 26, which is expected to drop in September alongside the iPhone 17 family. You can find the biggest announcements from WWDC 2025 here and, if you haven't seen it yet, check out our interview with Apple's Craig Fedreghi and Greg Joswiak discussing Apple Intelligence (among other things) below.