And honestly…Apple’s kind of behind.

Don’t get us wrong — we love Apple. Their hardware quality is top-tier, and no one does polished design like they do. But when it comes to AI, Apple is showing up late. Many of the features they just introduced have been available on Android for a while —and they’ve working well.

Google in particular has a huge lead thanks to it’s AI platform, Gemini. Andoird already feels deeply integrated with AI, while Apple is just getting started.

Let’s breakdown some of the new features and see why we feel Apple’s still playing catch-up:

Photo Clean Up

This tool is baked into the iOS Photos app and is super easy to use. It works fine for removing small distractions in your pictures. But if you’re trying to clean up something bigger or more complex… the results aren’t great. It’s definitely not on the same level as more advanced photo editing tools. Still, for quick touch-ups, it gets the job done—and to be fair, Apple isn’t trying to replace full photo editing apps here.

Genmoji

This is a fun one—you can create your own custom emojis using AI, right inside the messages app. It’s cute, but kind of limited. And honestly, Android users have had similar tools for years. So while it’s a nice addition, it’s not exactly groundbreaking.

Image Playground

This lets you generate images with AI using a super simple interface. It even gives you multiple versions True to it’s name, it feels more like a fun toy than a serious creative tool.

Apple ChatGPT

Apple has partnered with ChatGPT, and now the iOS Notes app can help you to rewrite your text to sound more friendly, professional, or concise. It’s pretty useful—if your type your notes. But if you’re like me and use an Apple pencil to handwrite everything… no luck. Apple intelligence doesn’t read handwritten notes yet. Pro tip: just snap a photo of your notes, upload it to the ChatGPT app, and ask it to turn them intop a text file and include it in your notes. It works like magic!

So…Is Apple Too Late?

Apple is heading in the right direction, but they’re clearly behind the competition. Google, Microsoft and of course Open AI are already far ahead in the AI integration. Apple’s new features feels more like a flashy marketing push than a solid leap foward.

We’re hopeful that Apple will catch up and deliver something amazing—but for now, It’s clear they’re still playing catch-up in the AI Game.