4 of the best AI art generator apps for iPhone

Midjourney AI generated image of an animator at their desk
(Image credit: Midjourney)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to be everywhere at the moment, and one way AI is changing landscapes and making waves is in the art world, with AI image generators quickly becoming popular tools for producing artwork.

These image generators can conjure up ‘artwork’ from a few sentences describing what you want. They’re trained using huge datasets of existing art - and this is a messy pot to dip in so we won’t go into too much detail there - and use that to come up with images that match your description in a style that fits your needs.

You can use image generators for a lot of reasons. They can help bring your ideas to life or find inspiration. For example, you can make Valentine’s day cards, visualise a character from a tabletop role-play game like D&D or from a novel you may be working on and come up with album art or book covers. The only real limit is your imagination. 

At the moment there are plenty of websites you can use, and some of the best AI image generators have millions of daily users. But, if you’re looking to get to work on your iPhone and on the go, we’ve got a list of the best image generators that work on iOS.

Midjourney 

A pair of spherical computer cases designed by the Midjourney AI.

(Image credit: Midjourney)

Midjourney is extremely popular and for good reason. Interestingly, it differs from a lot of the other tools on our list because it doesn’t actually have its own website. Instead, Midjourney is hosted entirely on its own Discord server and you can only access it by joining the server and giving the Discord Bot commands. So, to use Midjourney on iPhone all you’re going to need is the Discord app.

Once you’re logged into your Discord account you need to go back to the Midjourney site and join the beta. This way you’ll get an invite to join the server and boom! You’re in.  

You can now go to the Newcomer server and start generating, just type “/imagine” on the chat, then you can type in your description for your desired art.

TikTok

TikTok AI image of Muskaan via TikTok

(Image credit: Future)

This may come as a shock to some, but TikTok is full of really good AI filters and subsequently makes it a great AI art generator. The huge plus here is that since it’s on TikTok, it’s completely free, so there’s no paying for a feature or limited downloads. You’ll also have direct access to a plethora of tutorials and examples already available on the app if you get stuck, or need a little inspiration.

The feature is called AI art and you can pick a photo from your gallery to jazz up with filters that can bring a photo to life. There are filters for just about any AI image you might want, such as turning a video of yourself into different art styles. There’s also the very useful filter called “AI Greenscreen” which allows users to type in text prompts and obtain cool art that they can use as a background for videos or save for later use. This is the perfect place to get started if you’re new to AI image generation and want a familiar app and interface.

Dall-E 2

AI generated responses to the prompt "a man steps into a portal through his television screen" and close-ups of the bizarre hands

(Image credit: DALL-E 2 / Picsart)

Dall-E 2 is another AI art generator that is one of the most advanced tools of its kind on the market right now, creating images by combining multiple styles and designs to come up with unique art. It also has an edit feature that will add or remove details from existing images and will let you take a normal photo using your camera and change it to multiple different art styles like sketch style, digital art, oil painting and more.

It may not technically be an app, but you can easily access it from your browser and save the art you’ve generated onto your iPhone. It can act as a quick and smart editing tool to get rid of blemishes or unwanted objects in existing images.

So if you have a photo of yourself in a crowd that you would like to clean up -remove other people, crazy-looking seagulls, a bag in hand- you can use Dall-E to edit your photo and get it up to par.

NightCafe

NightCafe AI generation of Gas station in Mars

(Image credit: Future)

This text-to-image tool turns your text prompts into images as usual, and can also convert uploaded images into different styles and formats.  It uses a system of credits to let users access its features, and you can buy credits and participate in the NightCafe’s art community. However, you do get five free credits to use every day free of charge when you log in or use the app.

The platform comes with a load of other perks as well, like a super user-friendly interface and high image quality. This is especially useful for portraits, which have a solid level of detail that is maintained and also quite realistic. It can be used as an app on your phone or by adding the NightCafe web page to your home screen.

Muskaan Saxena
Computing Staff Writer

Muskaan is TechRadar’s UK-based Computing writer. She has always been a passionate writer and has had her creative work published in several literary journals and magazines. Her debut into the writing world was a poem published in The Times of Zambia, on the subject of sunflowers and the insignificance of human existence in comparison. Growing up in Zambia, Muskaan was fascinated with technology, especially computers, and she's joined TechRadar to write about the latest GPUs, laptops and recently anything AI related. If you've got questions, moral concerns or just an interest in anything ChatGPT or general AI, you're in the right place. Muskaan also somehow managed to install a game on her work MacBook's Touch Bar, without the IT department finding out (yet).

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