Apple started rolling out the latest beta of iOS 18.1 for developers yesterday, which is in its third installment. iOS 18.1 Beta 3 continues to bring new Apple Intelligence features that were first added in the first release. The most notable addition to this update is the AI-powered Clean Up feature or the equivalent of Magic Eraser in Google Photos.
Apple’s Clean Up has been previewed at WWDC 2024 and it was also discovered through codes in early iO8 versions before it was announced. The new AI feature also arrives on iPad and Mac/MacBook through the betas of iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1, respectively.
How Apple’s Clean Up AI tool functions: Erase, Heal, and Pixelate
As the name implies, Clean Up lets you remove unwanted elements from photos that range from people to objects similar to the popular Magic Eraser feature in Google Photos. But more than erasing elements, Clean Up also has retouch or heal and pixelation modes.
Retouch works best for enhancing faces like removing blemishes or correcting a specific area. You’ll just need to zoom in and highlight a face. Likewise, it can also expel obtrusive shadows and reflections by just encircling them in a photo.
On the other hand, you can scribble on a person’s face to sensor or pixelate it. This is great if you want to conceal a face in a photo, keeping it private without actually removing or editing the entire person.
More importantly, Apple is also labeling the EXIF data of photos edited by Clean Up, this is to tell if they are manipulated or not. Of course, users should be manually checking the EXIF to do this.
Clean Up is powered by the NPU or neural processing unit in the chipset of an iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It is part of the suite of Apple Intelligence, meaning its availability could be very limited to the iPhone models with supported hardware. However, there’s a chance it could be added on older iPhones since it is not as resource-intensive compared to other AI features.
But if you want a similar tool, Google’s Magic Eraser is offered for users in Google Photos with Google One subscriptions.
Are you excited to test Apple Intelligence once it arrives on your iPhone? Let us know in the comments.
