Apple Intelligence isn’t a thing, it’s several things that are being released piecemeal over the course of several iOS/iPadOS/macOS updates. It started with iOS 18.1, but aside from some neat writing tools, the really good stuff didn’t arrive until now. With iOS 18.2, your iPhone has quite a few new useful features and improvements powered by Apple Intelligence, and gives you a much better idea of where Apple is going with its AI vision. The features introduced in iOS 18.1 were just the start; these are all the big ways Apple Intelligence levels up in iOS 18.2 and macOS 15.2.

Image playground is Apple’s DALL·E

With the iOS/iPadOS 18.2 and macOS 15.2 updates, you’ll find a new app installed on your devices: Image Playground. Like DALL·E and other AI image generators, it allows you to make AI-made images by typing a description or using a variety of selected settings, objects, and modifiers. You can opt to draw in either animation or illustration styles, but it’s very limited in both scope and quality, probably to avoid any potential for trying to trick anyone. But you can select people from your Photos library to use a subject, which is kind of fun.

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Foundry

You can use the Image Playground engine in the Notes app with a new Image Wand too. It can make a new image from a description or surrounding text, or take a rough sketch and flesh it out. Anywhere you can draw an image in Notes, just select the new “Magic Wand” tool at the right and circle the blank area or rough sketch you wish to replace with an AI-generated one.

It’s based on the same image generation tools as Image Playground, so it has the same strict limitations and middling quality. But unless you’re an artist, it’s probably going to look nicer than the rough sketch you made with your finger or Apple Pencil.

Genmoji is built into the keyboard

The next image generation tool built into the latest version of iOS and macOS is called Genmoji, and it will make a new custom image in the style of Apple’s emoji. Just open any app that accepts emoji input, select the emoji picker in the keyboard (or your Mac’s menu), and tap/click the smiling face icon to the right of the emoji search box.

Then you can describe the emoji you wish to see and Apple’s image-generation AI will give you several options.

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Foundry

Writing Tools will do what you say

The Writing Tools prompt in iOS 18.1 will let you change your selected text to automatically make it more professional, friendly, or concise. Those options are still there, but the Writing Tools interface now includes a text input line where can describe any sort of change you want. Tell Writing Tools to make it into a poem, make it scary, or whatever else you like (within reason of course).