Apple iOS 18.1 Beta 3 Arrives With A Sweet New AI Trick To Clean Up iPhone Photos
by
Thiago Trevisan
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Thursday, August 29, 2024, 09:33 AM EDT
Apple is expected to release its upcoming iPhone 16 during its September 9th 'Glowtime' event. With “It’s Glowtime” tagline, it is obvious Apple plans to lean heavily into the software side. To that end, the 'Clean Up' photo object removal tool is now available for beta testers. Apple's iOS 18 update is also slated to release alongside new devices, but users can test out new features that are currently in beta. Note that you’ll need the iOS 18.1 Beta, and not the iOS 18 Beta for Apple Intelligence functionality.
The Developer Beta 18.1 for iOS has branched out from the iOS 18 Beta, most notably to contain Apple Intelligence. Apple hopes to garner stronger sales this year with the AI hype.
This is Clean Up, the before picture with automatic highlights
The newly added feature is called Clean Up, which can be found by choosing to edit a photo. After a brief download when selecting, you can now remove various objects and people in pictures.
This is the after result using Clean Up, notice the people are removed but left some red artifacts
I tested out this feature on both an iPhone 15 Pro Max and M4 iPad Pro, and so far it seems to be hit or miss, with some lackluster results. For example, it can highlight people you may want to remove, such as in the picture with the LEGOLAND sign. It does a good job of removing them, but sometimes it will leave artifacts and other abnormalities in the same space. Blurring of what is left over is common too, turning some pictures into a sci-fi themed mess at times.
Pictures with a one or two people seem easier to do accurately, producing better results. This functionality is similar to Google’s Magic Eraser, which is also an object removal tool for photos.
When results are good, they can also remove shadows and reflections of the object that was removed. This is making it harder to detect if an image has been altered. Clean Up worked on both iOS and iPadOS beta, with similar results.
The automatic selection of potential candidates for selection may need more fine tuning, but can work in simpler pictures. The ability to remove objects in pictures will likely be very popular amongst users after the capabilities are further matured with Apple Intelligence.
