according to this weekend’s Power On bulletinThe image creation models used in Apple’s Genmoji and Image Playground will receive a “huge boost” in visual quality. Right now, they’re far from anything to write home about.
Recently we heard that Apple will introduce innovations Genmoji suggested based on your photo library and other key details – but that won’t be the only improvement coming to Genmoji this year. according to Mark GurmanApple models will receive a “big boost” in visual quality:
I also reported that Apple is preparing to support third-party AI models other than OpenAI’s ChatGPT for image generation in the redesigned Image Playground app in iOS 27. Now, I’m told there’s a little more to the story: Apple’s models for Genmoji and Image Playground have improved this year.
When Image Playground and Genmoji debuted in iOS 18.2, image fidelity certainly wasn’t impressive. Genmoji was generally good, but Image Playground was incredibly poor – especially compared to other image creation tools. It didn’t really matter, because the world probably needs less AI apps, but at the end of the day, Apple decided to ship Image Playground, and it shouldn’t have been as bad as it was.
True, there is the fact that Image Playground and Genmoji are equipped with models on the device. This does not necessarily excuse the fact that it is poor, but it is part of the explanation. Either way, quality should improve this year, though it’s unclear if the models will still work on the device.
Eventually, Apple will add support for other AI image creation models in Image Playground. Currently, it supports ChatGPT image generation. It will likely expand to support Google’s Nano Banana models, among other competitors.
My favorite Apple accessory recommendations:
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