How to Make an AI Photo App for iPhone (2026)

By Sigsten Gustavii· 27 October 2026· 8 min read

To make an AI photo app, pick one kind of picture people want (a sticker, a card, a wallpaper, a story illustration), turn their choices into a good description behind the scenes, call an image model through a server that holds the key, save results in a gallery, and charge enough to cover each picture. With Borel, the image model, the key handling and the consent are built in.

"AI photo app" covers two different products. One makes new pictures from words: a birthday card, a sticker, a bedtime story illustration, a phone wallpaper in a chosen style. The other edits the person's own photos: avatars from selfies, restyled portraits, removed backgrounds. Borel builds the kind that makes new pictures today. That is still a big space, and a well-designed one wins on taste and convenience rather than on the model.

Pick one kind of picture

General image generators are everywhere. An app worth installing does one thing with a point of view:

The trick is in the last column. People choose from a few friendly options, and the app writes the detailed description for the model. That makes results better and more consistent than a blank text box.

How pictures are made in a Borel app

A Borel app asks Borel AI for a picture with a description and a shape: square, portrait or landscape. The picture is saved in the app's own files, and the app shows it from there. The same description returns the same picture without a new charge, which keeps a gallery cheap to reopen. There is no AI account and no API key: the app reaches the image model through Borel's server, and the cost comes from your app's balance. More on built-in AI.

Consent and Apple's AI rules

Apple's Guideline 5.1.2(i) requires telling people when personal data goes to a third-party AI and getting explicit permission. Borel's AI kit asks before the opening picture request and names the company behind the image model, then remembers the answer. An AI switch in settings lets people change their mind. If your app sends anything personal, such as a child's name in a story, say so on the screen where they type it.

Read the full rules on Apple's App Review Guidelines page.

What it costs, and how to charge

Because every new picture costs money, give a few free pictures and charge for more: a weekly or monthly subscription, or a one-time unlock for a larger allowance. Use Borel's Add payment to set the plan; it builds the paywall on Apple's StoreKit. When the app's balance runs out, picture-making stops rather than running up a bill, so watch Cloud cost. Read how to add in-app purchases.

Design tips

1. Start from choices, not a blank box. Chips for style, mood and colours beat a text field.
2. Show progress. A picture takes a few seconds; show a calm placeholder in the final shape.
3. Offer variations. "Try again" with a small change to the description.
4. Make the gallery the home screen after the opening picture, so people see what they made.
5. Save and share easily: to Photos, or through the share sheet to messages.

Writing presets that look good

The quality of an AI picture app is mostly the quality of its presets. A preset is a block of style words the app adds to every description. A few habits help:

• Name the medium: watercolour, paper cut-out, flat vector, oil painting, pixel art.
• Name the light and mood: soft morning light, warm and cosy, bright and playful.
• Keep composition simple: one subject, centred, plain background, for cards and stickers.
• Say what to avoid: no text in the picture, no logos, no real people.
• Test each preset ten times with different subjects before shipping it, and drop the ones that wobble.

Keep the presets in the app's database if you want to change or add them without a new app version.

On-device extras

Apple's Vision framework runs on the phone, free and offline, and can find faces, text and objects in a photo the person picks with the photo picker. That is useful for sorting a gallery or reading text off a picture. It doesn't restyle photos, and Borel apps don't include Core Image filters, so keep edits to cropping and simple adjustments.

How to choose the right way to build an AI photo app

• Borel, for a focused native app that makes pictures from words, with no key, consent built in and a StoreKit paywall.
• Your own server with an image model's API, if you need photo-to-photo editing, custom models or fine-tuning.
• [Lovable](/compare/lovable), if a web tool is enough.
• [CatDoes](/compare/catdoes), if you need Android as well.

How to do it with Borel, step by step

Step 1: Describe the app and its presets

Make a birthday card app. On the home screen, people pick a style (watercolour, paper cut, pixel art, cosy illustration), type the person's name and age, and pick a hobby from a list. The app writes a description for a portrait card with that hobby in the chosen style and makes the picture with Borel AI. Show a soft placeholder while it is made. Save every card to a gallery with the name and date, with buttons to save to Photos and share. Give 3 free cards, then show a paywall for a monthly plan.

Rivet writes the app in Swift with SwiftUI, the AI calls with Borel's kit and the consent question before the opening picture.

Step 2: Add the plan

Open Payments in the chat's + menu, set the monthly plan's name and price, and send it with the message so the paywall uses it.

Step 3: Try it on a live iPhone

In the iOS Simulator in your browser, make a few cards, accept the consent question and check the gallery. Tune the presets in plain words until the pictures look right.

Step 4: Publish

Top up the app's balance, then Publish under your Apple Developer account. Stamp checks the app before it goes, including the AI consent.

The Bottom Line

A good AI photo app is a focused one: a kind of picture people want, chosen from friendly options and turned into a good description behind the scenes. Borel gives you the image model with no key, the consent Apple asks for, a gallery and a StoreKit paywall. It makes pictures from words, not edits of people's own photos, so design around that. Describe yours on Borel and make a picture on a live iPhone.

I think a focused picture app with good presets beats a blank prompt box every time. I'd love to see what yours makes.

– Sigsten

Make your iPhone app in Borel

Describe the app you want and see its first screens before you pay anything.