Companion is an Apple Intelligence-powered feature that allows you to generate supporting content for your Explain Everything projects on iPads and iPhones. Companion takes the content of a slide, uses it as input, and builds upon it. This lets you immediately create and add various materials, or receive guidance for your project.
Note: Companion requires a device running at least iPadOS 27 or iOS 27 that supports Apple Intelligence features. Apple Intelligence needs to be enabled in the device Settings. Learn more about supported devices on the Apple Support page.
Companion Basics
- Select text and image content to act as a source for the Companion. The more cohesive the content, the better the results.
- Select what kind of supporting content it should generate.
- Review generated content and select one of the available follow-up actions.
- If you don't like the results, you can always retry with the Regenerate action.
Note: AI can make mistakes. Always review important information for accuracy.
Start Companion
You can use Companion features to generate content based on the entire slide or selected parts of it.
Start generating content based on the entire slide
- Select the Companion button from the top of the screen.
- All objects from the slide will appear in the list of sources.
Select objects to use as source content
- Select the Hand Tool from the Toolbar.
- If you plan to include more than one object, select the Hand Tool again.
- Select the objects on the canvas that you'd like to use as sources.
- From the Context Menu, select the AI tab.
- Select Companion.
Manage source content
Regardless of how you start Companion, you can add and remove content for it to refer to.
- To add source content from Photos or Files, select Add More from the list.
- To remove the source content, select X on it.
Generate content
Once you've added your sources, you can select what kind of content you'd like to generate for your project. Here are the available actions Companion can perform for the topic.
Activity
Generates one of the selected Explain Everything interactive activities you can place on the canvas as objects.
Tip: Not familiar with Activities? Learn more about how they work in the Introduction to Activities.
Available options: Quiz, Matching, Crossword, Memo
Follow-up actions: Create Activity, Add to Slide, Translate, Add as Audio, Copy,
Fun
Generates an entertaining educational text in the selected style containing facts about the topic.
Available options: Surprise Me, Rap Battle, Make a Song, Mystery, Explain Like I’m 5, Dad Joke
Follow-up actions: Add to Slide, Translate, Add as Audio, Copy,
Find Errors
Scans the source content for educational elements, detects errors, and suggests solutions.
Follow-up actions: Add to Slide, Translate, Add as Audio, Copy
Step-by-Step Explanation
Generates a text explanation for the topic outlined by the source content. If the topic is not clear or cohesive, it will let you know. Depending on the option selected it will be made as a numbered list or a brief description.
Available options: Step-by-step, Simplified
Follow-up actions: Add to Slide, Translate, Add as Audio, Copy
Generate Vocabulary List
Outlines the most important terms and their definitions for the topic.
Follow-up actions: Add to Slide, Translate, Add as Audio, Copy
Suggest Next Steps
Provides suggestions on follow-up topics and practice tasks for the topic of source content.
Follow-up actions: Add to Slide, Translate, Add as Audio, Copy
Accessibility Description
Generates an alt-text accessibility description for the provided visual content.
Follow-up actions: Add to Slide, Translate, Add as Audio, Copy
Design Template
Creates a text and color template you can apply to your project. It will describe the idea for the template, select the slide background and default tool colors, as well as pick a font style for it.
Follow-up actions: Apply All
Brainstorm
Generates a set of core ideas surrounding the topic of the source content.
Follow-up actions: Add as Sticky Notes, Add Images to Canvas, Add to Slide, Translate, Add as Audio, Copy
Visual Glossary
Creates an image gallery for key terms related to the source content. Each image will be accompanied by the term and its definition.
Follow-up actions: Add Images to Canvas, Add to Slide, Translate, Add as Audio, Copy
Lesson Plan
Creates an entire lesson plan for the topic of the source content. It will provide details on objectives, duration, required materials, practice, and assessment. The content will also include warmup, closure, and homework examples as well as tips on how to adjust to students depending on their level of understanding.
Follow-up actions: Add to Slide, Translate, Add as Audio, Copy