After a long wait, Apple’s “Image Playground” has eventually got the light of the day. Powered by AI, the image generator tool has got most bases covered to be a handy asset for anyone who wants to create awesome-looking images without putting much effort. Sadly, for some users, the Image Playground is not working on their iPhones, iPads, or Macs. But fret not, we’ve listed out the best tips and tricks to resolve the issue. Keep reading…
Tips to Fix Image Playground Not Working on iPhone, iPad, and Mac
Aside from a software bug, one of the many limitations could be a major reason why Apple’s image generation tool is malfunctioning on your device. So, first off, we are going to point out all the key requirements and restrictions to ensure you can sort them out right away.
1. Ensure That Apple Has Made the Image Playground Available on Your iDevice
Bear in mind that the Image Playground is still in beta. Hence, you will have to first join the waitlist. Unless and until, Apple has accepted your invitation and made the image creator ready on your iDevice, you can’t use it.
Besides, note that Apple’s Image Playground requires iDevices equipped with M1 or higher/A17 Pro and higher chip. As for software compatibility, your device needs to run iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, or macOS Sequoia 15.2 or later.
2. Right Way to Generate an Image Using the Image Playground
- Just launch the Image Playground app and enter the desired prompt. For instance, “A white dog wearing sunglasses and a hat”. Make sure your prompt is short and precise.
- The app gets into the work of generating the specified image the moment you enter your prompt.
- If needed, you also have the flexibility to tweak the result with additional word descriptions. Alternatively, you can also take advantage of Apple’s helpful suggestions to create nice-looking images.
- Don’t worry, the app allows you to add and remove words as well as phrases until you are completely satisfied with the created image.
- The image creation app shows thumbs-up and thumbs-down icons which you can use to submit feedback. While the thumbs-up doesn’t require you to add any more input, the thumbs-down icon directs you to an interface where you can fine-tune your image by adding the missing details.
- Once you have generated an image, hit the Done button to save it to your Image Playground library.
- Note that once you have saved your generated photos in the Image Playground library, you will be able to edit, share, and even delete them as per your needs.
3. So, How Do You Create Personalized Images Based on People?
Creating personalized images based on people with Image Playground is pretty straightforward.
- To get it done, all you need to do is select the “person” saved in your People album.
- When the app has converted an image into an animated form, you can swipe to select the preferred image that looks in line with your taste.
- What about creating a personalized image of a celebrity? No worries! Import an image from anywhere or save it from a browser and use the image generator to transform it in a jiffy.
- Notably, there is a neat way to make a generic look with the help of the built-in “Appearance” tool located in the Person interface. It lets you choose a skin tone and feature set, that you can further fine-tune using the image descriptions.
4. How do You Access and Use the “Image Playground” Inside the Apple Messages App?
The Image Playground app works like a charm as an iMessage app, thereby allowing you to generate images right from the messaging app itself.
- Navigate to the Apple Messages app -> open a chat thread -> hit the “+” button -> Select “Image Playground” and then go about the job as usual.
5. Beware of the Permitted Animation Style
It’s worth pointing out that Apple doesn’t allow making photorealistic images with Image Playground. As of now, you are restricted to just two styles:
- Animation: It’s a basically 3D-looking style that seems to be out and out inspired by the “Pixar” movie.
- Illustration: To be more precise, Illustration is a simple 2D image.
At the time of the announcement (June 2024), Apple had stated that the AI-powered image creator would come in three styles such as Animation, Illustration, and Sketch. However, the tech giant has not yet divulged any details regarding when the “Sketch” style will be added.
6. Keep in Mind the Major Limitations of Image Playground
- Image Playground has support for only portrait-style photos. As it is restricted to showing only the top half of a person, you can’t make it to deliver a full-body pose image.
- Thankfully, this restriction doesn’t apply to the images of animals and creatures.
- Generating an image with a secondary object like another person or a pet also seems to be a rather painful affair.
- For the time being, Image Playground struggles when dealing with an image with multiple subjects.
- You can’t generate images with alcohol, Nazis, drugs, or anything of that kind using Apple’s image generation tool.
- If a word isn’t allowed, a message will appear saying “Unable to use that description”.
- Though image generation does allow you to create images with gun and pistol, things like AK-47, machine gun, and shotgun have been blocked.
- The app has entirely blocked all the concepts that are used to create political images.
- Adding country-specific flags such as United States, Mexico or Germany has been banned.
- Be warned that Apple doesn’t allow generating images of copyrighted characters such as Mickey Mouse.
7. Force Quit the Image Playground App
At times, force killing is all you need to do to bring the ill-functioning “Image Playground” app back on track.
On iPhone/iPad
- Simply, swipe up from the Home Bar and hold -> Swipe up the Image Playground app -> launch the app again -> enter the prompt to create an image to check if the issue is gone.
On Your Mac
- Hit the Apple menu at the top left -> Choose Force Quit -> Select the Image Playground app and hit the Force Quit button in the menu.
8. Restart Your Device
Should the “Image Playground” continue to struggle, reboot your device.
- To reboot your iPhone/iPad: Press and hold the volume up button and the side button at once -> drag the power off slider to shut down your device -> press the side button to restart your device.
- To restart your Mac: Click the Apple menu -> Restart and confirm.
9. Update Software
If nothing has worked in resolving the Image Playground problem, why not look for the software update and update your device at the earliest? Since the AI-driven image creator is still a work in progress, there is a high chance that it could be embroiled in a bug.
- On your iPhone/iPad, go to the Settings app -> General -> Software Update -> Now, download the available update.
- On your Mac, dive into the System Settings app -> General -> Software Update -> Install the latest update.
And that’s about it! Hopefully, the image creator tool has begun to work as usual after the software update. Now, share your thoughts about this brand-new app and the sort of changes that you would like to see in it – sooner rather than later.
