iOS 18.4 Update for iPhone Brings New Sketch Style to Image Playground App

Apple rolled out its highly anticipated iOS 18.4 update last month and it brought several notable features to the iPhone. While the update's highlight was the introduction of Visual Intelligence on iPhone 15 Pro models, some features didn't make the limelight. For example, the update brought a new change to the Image Playground app. A new Sketch image style now joins the existing two options and finally completes the feature set which the company initially previewed as part of iOS 18 at WWDC 2024.

New Image Style in Image Playground App

According to Apple, Image Playground has a new image style dubbed Sketch. It is described as an “academic and highly detailed style that uses a vibrant color palette combined with technical lines to produce realistic drawings.” Similar to other options, it also leverages Apple Intelligence — the company's AI suite — to transform rough sketches into digital art based on text-based prompts.

The new Sketch option joins the existing Animation and Illustration styles, bringing the number of total available choices in the Image Playground app to three. Although Apple previewed the Sketch style, along with others, during WWDC 2024, it remained eluded while others made their way to the iPhone following the release of the iOS 18.2 update in December.

Notably, Image Playground is available as a free standalone app on the App Store. It bundles three capabilities, enabling users to express themselves better. As per Apple, the app leverages generative AI to generate and tailor images in different styles, with Animation, Illustration, and Sketch styles to choose from. Additionally, there's a Genmoji feature which has similar functionality but works for emojis instead of images. The company says that images and emojis created in Image Playground can be shared in apps such as Messages and Notes, along with the entire iWork suite of apps.

The third feature part of Image Playground is the Image Wand. It transforms a rough sketch into a related image in the Notes app, similar to Samsung's Galaxy AI-powered Sketch to Image feature. Further, the feature can also create an image in the app based on the handwritten or typed text using on-device generative AI models.