New iOS 18.1 Beta Adds 'Clean Up' Apple Intelligence Photos Feature

The third beta of iOS 18.1 that Apple provided to developers today includes a new Apple Intelligence feature for the Photos app. Clean Up can be used to remove distracting objects from the background of a photo while leaving the subject of the image intact.

iOS 18 Photos Feature Chromatic
The Clean Up tool in the ‌Photos‌ app is able to automatically detect objects in an image that might not be wanted, but users can also tap, circle, or brush over an unwanted object to remove it.

Zooming in on an image can help with using a finger as a brush to remove smaller blemishes and issues with an image, and it is intelligent enough not to remove part of a person even if a person or main subject is selected.

Clean Up works on all images in the ‌Photos‌ library, including older images and images captured by other devices like a point and shoot camera or a DSLR.

Apple says that Clean Up works using multiple machine learning models to detect distractions, determine the where the edges of an object are, and then fill in the area seamlessly to replace the unwanted object, even filling in the object's shadow or reflection.

The update also includes notification summaries for additional apps beyond Messages and Mail.

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Top Rated Comments

Treble Avatar
18 months ago
Now you see it and now you don’t

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Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
spaxxedout Avatar
18 months ago
I just tried it on a screenshot of my Apple Card balance.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
August West Avatar
18 months ago
And the shadow from the bottle remains even though the bottle is no longer visible.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
spaxxedout Avatar
18 months ago
Much better than I expected. Very good for a local model.



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Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GrayFlannel Avatar
18 months ago

Now you see it and now you don’t
Flawless. No one can tell it was shopped.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ChrisA Avatar
18 months ago
a lot of phototography is utilitarian. I use a camera like a notebook. This feature, even if it makes uigly artifacts would help with these kinds of record-keeping photos because I would remove anything that is distracting.

As an example, yesterday I send a bicycle manufacturer a photo of a bike with a question about exactly when it was made. Had this "clean up" feature been available I could have removed every non-bike object that cluttered the frame. I just needed to order a part and which parts depended on when the bike was made. Many people use cameras to communicate things like proposed changes at a construction site or whatever. So the feature does not need to be perfect to be very useful.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)