Apple’s Image Playground might be about to get a Nano Banana boost

• New code in the latest iOS 26 beta reveals Apple could be working on adding third-party image generators to Image Playground
• Currently, you can only use ChatGPT inside Image Playground, but this new code hints at more third-party options in the future
• If this comes to fruition, Gemini Nano Banana could be one of the image generators added in the future

Apple looks set to upgrade Image Playground in iOS 26, with new code in the latest beta suggesting that users could soon be able to use third-party AI image generators other than ChatGPT.

Revealed by 9to5Mac, the new code hints at "estimated latency" and adds provider identifiers, which means we're likely to see other AI image-generation tools outside of OpenAI's in Apple's stock Image Playground.

This would be an incredibly exciting addition to Apple Intelligence, and lines up with previous reports from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, who said Apple could introduce Google's AI products into iPhones in the future, for example to power Siri.

Google is currently the trailblazer in AI image generation, with its latest model, Nano Banana, offering the best way to turn your text into images. Nano Banana also offers AI image-editing capabilities that would truly enhance the Image Playground experience should it be introduced.

Image Playground is accessible on compatible devices running iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26, and now has ChatGPT capabilities as well as Apple's own LLM for image generation.

While we don't have any idea of when more third-party image generators will be introduced into Image Playground, this found code hints at a huge upgrade to the native application.

A playground of opportunity

The prospect of having AI image-generation tools from providers like Google built into Image Playground on iOS sounds absolutely fantastic.

I don't use AI image-generation tools often, but having a native application that allows you to tap into the very capable tools on the market without needing to open a third-party app would really push Apple Intelligence and Apple's AI offering forward.

Image Playground is limited to say the least, and while it was improved with iOS 26 by the addition of some ChatGPT functionality, it could get even better if Apple brings Gemini's Nano Banana on board.

Obviously, nothing is confirmed just yet, but these findings hint at a very big Apple Intelligence upgrade soon, and I just hope this comes to fruition.

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