Let’s be honest, Image Playground doesn’t get the best reputation. There are quite a few reasons for that, you can figure them out yourself. But actually, iOS 27 brings a really powerful AI-based image editor to your phone with the new, enhanced Image Playground.

Now, if you don’t like using AI to create images, it’s not going to be for you, leave the video now. But if you do want a built-in way to create photorealistic pictures on your phone, or to make edits to your current photos, this is a tutorial for you.

And before we get started, let me introduce myself. Hi, I’m Jacob. I’m your friendly Apple expert here on YouTube, to help you make the most of your devices. Tap subscribe, and you won’t miss any QuickTips in the future.

Okay, I’m in the Image Playground app here, and as you can see, I’ve not really used it a huge amount in the past. These sort of weird, cartoony animal pictures are generally the best I’ve managed to make it create. But that’s all changed in iOS 27, with Apple Intelligence, because now, when I create a new image, not only can I describe with text and get a photorealistic version, I can also add a photograph as a starting point.

So, here I’ve got a photograph of my cat, Pudding, asleep in the sun. And I’m going to tap on here to add it to my Image Playground. Right now, he’s on the wooden floor, there’s a nice bit of sunlight coming in, but I want to make it look like he’s in a very regal setting. So, I’m going to type in the description: “Make this cat look like he’s lying on a red velvet pillow in a dark, regal background with twinkly lights in the background.”

We can then choose the aspect ratio of the photo, landscape, portrait, square, I’m going to do mine portrait, it could become a good Lock Screen wallpaper, perhaps, or something like that. And then we can choose the style we want. Now, we can still go for Illustration, Animation, or ChatGPT images like we could before, but I’m going to keep it on the default mode, because I’m starting with a photo, Image Playground knows that my end result should also be a photo. If you’re not starting with a photo, just type in “photorealistic” in the text box.

And now, whilst I’ve been talking, it’s been generating that image. And look at that, it’s not perfect, it’s still AI, but it does look an awful lot like my cat Pudding is asleep on a lovely red cushion in a very regal room.

I’m still not sure I’m going to use it every day myself, but what I would suggest you do every day is join my channel on YouTube, and then check out this QuickTip.