Apple has added a new Sketch drawing style to Apple Intelligence’s Image Playground app on iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4 and macOS Sequoia 15.4.
Image Playground is an AI-powered image generator part of the Apple Intelligence suite of AI features. I don’t find it very useful, but you may disagree with me. At any rate, iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4 and macO Sequoia 15.4 bring a new drawing style, called Sketch, giving you more options in terms of the graphic style.
The Sketch style was previously available in the Image Wand tool in the Notes app, which allows you to create images based on your rough sketches or surrounding content. The new Sketch style joins the existing Animation and Illustration options with which Image Playground debuted as part of the iOS 18.2 update in December.
iOS 18.4 brings a Sketch graphic style to Image Playground
Image Playground is a standalone app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac models compatible with Apple Intelligence. You can use it to create stylized AI-based images from a short description and then tweak the results with various modifiers. You can also choose from suggested themes, costumes, accessories and places.
Moreover, Image Playground can use a headshot from the Photos app as a starting point. What it cannot do is photorealism, deepfakes and celebrity impersonation. Image Playground is also available from within the Messages app alongside Genmoji, another AI-based image generator in Apple Intelligence.
Using Image Playground in iOS 18.4 on my iPhone 16 Pro Max to create example images for this article has reminded me why I don’t like it. Aside from the cartoonish style that gets old fast, Image Playground mostly doesn’t create what I want.
I’m not sure why Image Playground only understood this prompt correctly when the illustration style was selected. I’m running the iOS 18.4 beta, not the final version, so let’s chalk this one up to an unfinished state of iOS 18.4, shall we?
Other changes coming alongside iOS 18.4
iOS 18.4 brings several other features and quality-of-life improvements. The Priority Notifications feature of Apple Intelligence groups important alerts into a Priority section at the bottom of the Lock Screen. Safari has a new option to toggle recent searches when you hit the URL field or open a new tab.
The Control Center gets two new widgets (Talk to Siri and Visual Intelligence). The Apple Intelligence widget can also be assigned to the Action button, the Back Tap feature and the Lock Screen shortcuts.
The App Store has a new feature that summarizes reviews, powered by large language models. Expanded carrier support for RCS messaging is available for the Messages app. And lastly, the update includes the ability to set up a Mac using a nearby iPhone. CarPlay can now show a third row of icons on vehicles equipped with a larger infotainment display. Apple has said that iOS 18.4 will mark the first release to bring Apple Intelligence to EU iPhone owners.