Clean Up is one of Apple Intelligence’s brighter new features, which you can try now with an iPhone 15 Pro or higher running the new iOS 18.1 update. It is Apple’s AI photo editing tool specially designed to remove background objects or other unwanted parts of an image with a simple tap. Think of it as the iOS version of Google Magic Eraser.

In typical iPhone fashion, it’s pretty simple to use. You can simply tap on objects to remove them, or circle around a larger object to let Apple do its job. Here’s how it works.

How to remove objects from iPhone photos

If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or higher, you can use this feature to clean up any image from your camera roll. Just make sure you have iOS 18.1 downloaded first, which you can find in settings -> Generic -> Software update.

Open the Photos app and find the image you want to clean up. Touch Edit button in the bottom toolbar (three slider icon), then swipe to Cleanse tab.

Removes clippings from my kitchen counter for more Instagram-worthy coffee.
Credit: Khamosh Pathak

The first time you do this, the Photos app will download some important cleanup data, so you’ll have to wait a few seconds. Now, Apple will automatically scan the image and start highlighting objects that can be removed with just a tap. They will pulse with a pink gradient. To remove one of these items, all you have to do is tap on it and it will disappear instantly. In my experience, Apple Intelligence does an impressive job of filling in the blanks left by distant objects, especially if the background is plain. In my experience, I’ve found this one-touch method to be the most reliable way to clean up photos.

But let’s say Apple didn’t automatically highlight everything you want to get rid of. You’ll have to take matters into your own hands, and this is where things start to get a little tricky. You can use your fingers to highlight or touch the object you want to get rid of, but I suggest a different approach.

Instead of highlighting or tapping, try drawing a circle or any shape around the object you want to remove. You don’t need to be precise here—after a few seconds, Apple Intelligence will automatically recognize the object, even if it’s something as whimsical as a plant with many leaves. Now, like before, you can just tap the object to remove it.

Sometimes manually selecting an element just doesn’t work, leaving a blurry effect.
Credit: Khamosh Pathak

In my testing, I’ve found this method to work much better than letting a touch try to guess the boundaries of an object or carefully drawing over the object you want to remove (these seem to leave a weird fuzzy effect).

And that’s all there is. You can use this tool to remove people from the background of your vacation photos (which I assume will be the biggest use case for this tool) or remove any elements that distract the eye from your subject. There is a downside though. When you use the Cleanup tools on a photo, it will disable the Live Photos functionality, turning it into a still image.