You see a poster for an event while walking downtown and want to save the date. You take a picture you like, but there's a crowd in the background. You return home and see that the client wants you to generate visuals for a project. All of these tasks are manageable with your Apple device. In this lesson, you'll learn how Apple Intelligence helps you understand what your camera sees, clean up photos, and create images.

This lesson introduces the visual side of Apple Intelligence. It can:

Some of these features work across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. One of them — Visual Intelligence — is iPhone only. We'll call that out clearly when we get there.

Image Playground is Apple's built-in image generation tool. You can use it as a standalone app or access it inside Messages and Freeform. Describe what you want, and Apple Intelligence generates an image.

When generating your images, you can include details like theme, setting, characters, costumes, accessories, and more, to shape the result. You can combine up to 7 elements.

Image Playground offers three styles:

If you enable the ChatGPT extension, you also get additional styles like Oil Painting, Vector, or Any Style, where you describe the exact look you want.

Image Playground generates 4-8 image variations. The more specific you are, the closer the result matches your idea. And if the first image isn't right, swipe through the variations or adjust your description to try again.

You can create images based on people from your photo library. Select their photo, and Image Playground uses it as a starting point to generate an image, with follow-up text prompts.

Genmoji lets you create your own custom emoji by typing a description. Open the emoji keyboard in Messages and tap Genmoji.

Type something like "cat in a space helmet," and Apple Intelligence generates multiple options to choose from.

Image Wand is a Notes-specific tool available on iPhone and iPad. It turns rough sketches into polished images using Apple Intelligence.

Draw a quick sketch in a note, then select Image Wand from the tool palette and circle your sketch. Apple Intelligence transforms it into a more refined image in your chosen style — Animation, Illustration, or Sketch.

The Clean Up tool in the Photos app removes distracting objects from your images.

Apple Intelligence highlights objects it thinks you might want to remove.

Tap or brush over anything else you want gone — a stranger in the background, a trash can on the beach, a power line across a sunset, and it disappears while keeping the rest of the image intact.

Apple Intelligence also powers natural-language search in your photo library. Instead of scrolling through thousands of images, type what you're looking for. Apple Intelligence finds matching photos based on what's in them. It can even find specific moments in video clips.

Visual Intelligence is an iPhone-only feature that lets you point your camera at the world around you — or analyze what's on your screen — and get instant information.

On iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 models with Camera Control, press and hold the Camera Control button to activate it. On iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16e, and iPhone 17e, access it via the Action button, Control Center, or Lock Screen.

How can Visual Intelligence assist you?

If the ChatGPT extension is enabled, you can tap Ask to send information about what you're viewing to ChatGPT and ask follow-up questions. You'll learn more about ChatGPT and Apple Intelligence workflow in the next lesson.

Visual Intelligence also works on your screen. Take a screenshot, and the Visual Intelligence tools appear at the bottom.

There are several options for what you can do with the Visual Intelligence. Here are some of them:

You've built a solid foundation — writing, organizing, and creating visuals. In the next lesson, you'll see what happens when you need help in the moment and how your device can be your smart assistant. You'll learn about Siri, ChatGPT integration, and Live-Translation features. Let's keep going!