Apple’s Image Playground Platform Has Caught up With ChatGPT and Gemini.
Among all the other AI improvements Apple is rolling out this year, you’ll find significant advancements in Image Playground’s AI-powered image generation capabilities. Previously, the app’s output was quite limited in size, style, and possible queries. These were AI-generated images designed for beginners, with results that were mostly simple and formulaic.
With the release of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27, that’s changing. You can try the developer betas now (though you probably shouldn’t ; public betas will arrive in July), and Apple says full releases will come later this year (most likely around September). Image generation is something ChatGPT and Gemini are constantly improving , to the point that some generated results are difficult to distinguish from real photos. So what does Apple’s new and improved Image Playground look like?
Here’s what Image Playground can do now.
Open Image Playground on the latest versions of iOS, iPadOS, or macOS, and you’ll discover several new features. First, you can request photorealistic images in the request window, as well as the sketches and illustrations that were previously available: ask for a photo of an English meadow or a majestic temple, and Image Playground will fulfill your request.
You now have more control over your images. You can submit a photo as a starting assignment and choose square, portrait, or landscape orientation for your shot—options previously unavailable. If you want to transport your dog to the jungle, you can now.
Additionally, there are smart editing tools, similar to those used in Google’s Nano Banana AI model , that allow you to modify specific parts of a generated image without having to re-render it completely. You can use a prompt to make changes and even select the part of the image you want to edit.
Now you can change the color of objects, delete objects entirely, change the weather in the scene—whatever you want. Judging by my tests, everything works well and produces impressive and consistent results. I was able to place a cartoon cat outside and then change its color without affecting the background.
Apple says all images created through Image Playground will have the same SynthID watermark as images created with Google Gemini and ChatGPT, and thanks to the use of private cloud computing, we know Apple won’t store or use users’ images to train its models.
Finally, you can use these images more effectively—for example, by setting them as contact posters or lock screen wallpapers. You’ll find additional tools for working with AI-generated images in the Photos app, where you can apply the same functions to photos from your photo library as in Image Playground.
Image Playground vs. competitors
Image Playground has improved significantly—no doubt thanks to Gemini’s support —but even so, the images don’t quite meet the very high bar set by Gemini and ChatGPT. Below, you can see how my query for “a photorealistic image of a small, ancient-looking spacecraft hovering between the stars, with an Earth-like planet behind it” was interpreted by Image Playground (left), Gemini (center), and ChatGPT (right).
Apple does a decent job, but in my opinion, Gemini and ChatGPT deliver more captivating and detailed results—like something out of a true sci-fi film. They have more detail and more imagination, though, to Apple’s credit, Image Playground delivered the fastest processing.
For my next challenge, I tried asking these AI tools to “move my stuffed animal from the floor to a pebble beach where the tide is coming in.” Again, these are all good attempts, but Gemini (center) and ChatGPT (right) add extra layers of verisimilitude in terms of color, angle, and texture (though Gemini appears to have created two shorelines).
I asked all three models to put the toy away and simply leave the beach, and they all performed more or less perfectly. This is Photoshop-level processing that used to take me hours, and now it can be done in seconds. It’s truly impressive. Gemini and ChatGPT still surpass them in quality, but Image Playground is built into billions of Apple devices. It’s now so good that many users will likely prefer not to switch to anything else when they need to create an image using AI, which can be crucial.