New Apple Apps And Tools Have To Wait For iOS 18

Several image-generation tools and Apple Intelligence most anticipated features will have to wait for some time until the release of iOS 18. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, it could be December before the iPhone will offer things like AI-generated images and custom emoji.

Apple Intelligence is expected to make its debut with iOS 18.1, which Gurman has previously reported will likely come sometime in October. Genmoji and the upcoming image-generation tool, Image Playground, reportedly will not be among its first features. Instead, Gurman predicts they'll ship with iOS 18.2, which he says is slated for December.

Apple showed off Genmoji and Image Playground during its June event. With Genmoji, users will be able to create custom emoji from a prompt or make emoji of real people based on their photos.

Image Playground, on the other hand, will let users generate images in three styles: Animation, Illustration and Sketch. It will be offered as a standalone app and as a built-in tool in other apps, including Messages.

All of these features will eventually be available for the iPhone 16 line, which will be unveiled on Monday 9 September at Apple’s "It’s Glowtime" event, as well as other recent iPhone models. Apple Intelligence will also bring ChatGPT integration, message summarization, a smarter Siri and more.