Apple Intelligence, unveiled at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), is still under development nearly three months later. The only way to access some of its features before a public release is by downloading the latest iOS 18.1 developer beta and receiving an invitation from Apple.
Until now, most of Apple Intelligence’s features available to individuals outside of Apple are related to writing and communication tools. With the third iOS 18.1 beta released earlier this week, Apple released a feature related to the Photos app.
Even in its beta release, the new Clean Up tool shows promise. When activated in the Photos app on iOS 18.1, it automatically detects objects in an image you may want to delete. You can also manually highlight unwanted objects by tapping, circling, or brushing over them with your finger. Additionally, you can zoom in on a photo to remove smaller objects. Once you highlight an object on an image, tap it, and the Clean Up tool will remove it.
After tapping on the highlighted objects to remove them, you can save the updated photo in the library by choosing Done or selecting Reset to go back to the original image. You can also use an undo button to reverse changes that you made one at a time.
As with any edit in the Photos app, you can return to the original version at any time, even months after you made the change.
I spent a few hours working with Clean Up and expect it to become a popular feature on iPhone and iPad. In its present form, I noticed that sometimes, when you remove an object from an image, the filling around it doesn’t quite look right, but this doesn’t come as much of a surprise. It will no doubt get better over time.
Clean Up works with any image in your Photos library, including ones taken with traditional cameras or other smartphones.
Apple is expected to release parts of Apple Intelligence with the first public release of iOS 18.1, perhaps as early as October. Before then, it will release iOS 18 about the time new iPhones arrive next month.
