An “Apple Intelligence” (AI)-powered feature coming in iOS 18 will allow iPhone users to create AI images of the people they’re messaging, a feature that works similarly to an AI-updated Bitmoji .
The new offering will help make your “everyday conversations more enjoyable,” according to Apple. It announced the new technology at WWDC 2024.
Apple Intelligence will understand who you’re talking to in a messaging conversation, so if you want to personalize that chat with a custom AI image, you can create one on the fly.
For example, Apple showed off an AI Bitmoji of a friend celebrating his birthday with an image that included cake, balloons, and flowers. Another showed a mother dressed in a superhero cape to show her children’s respect for her abilities.
The feature will support only three illustrative styles at launch: sketch, illustration, and animation.
It’s reminiscent of something a group of former Snap researchers were working on with their startup Easel, which was a kind of next-generation Bitmoji.
The imaging capabilities will also work in other apps like Notes, Freeform, Keynote, and Pages, Apple says.
Later in the keynote, Apple more formally announced Genmoji, a feature that lets you create AI emoji-like images of anyone from your photo library or just custom emojis. The Genmoji can be used as a sticker to react to messages with a Tapback or inline with your messages, Apple said.
Another new feature, Image Playground, also available as a standalone app and developer API, will allow users to create images using concepts such as themes, costumes, props, locations, and more. Select the hours you want to include, and moments later, the Apple Intelligence-powered feature will create a preview of your image.
It is not necessary to design the perfect message, the company notes.
You can scroll through image previews and create more images by selecting different styles, such as sketch, animation, or illustration, or go back. Apple Intelligence will also suggest insights related to your message conversation, but this all takes place on the device, according to Apple.
In addition to generating images, Apple Intelligence will work across apps to enable other features, such as the ability to ask you to find files you interacted with last week or photos of a specific person. Or maybe you want to ask them to play the podcast someone previously recommended to you.
Your understanding of the apps and actions included will make the feature more powerful, as you’ll understand things like your appointment details in Calendar along with traffic information from Maps and more, providing more personal context to your interactions.
Also at WWDC 2024, Apple announced updates to Siri and introduced macOS Sequoia.
