Just before it’s expected to announce a new iPhone model, Apple released a beta update that gives the first glimpse of what life will be like with Apple Intelligence on board. iOS 18.1 Beta 3 enables AI features Apple previewed at WWDC, including Apple’s Clean Up Photos and notification summaries. It also lets you play with Siri’s new interface.
Cleanup works like the Magic Eraser for Google Photos. It allows you to scrub unwanted people and objects from the background of the image. Once you join the Apple Intelligence beta, you’ll also get access to Summary Notifications, which uses AI to eliminate the most important messages and pings.
If you’d like, register your iPhone for the iOS beta. But go fast because it’s almost Glowtime. Then, understand Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri to change the option to join the Apple Intelligence waiting list.
The idea of Apple Intelligence
I haven’t had a chance to enable the notification shortcuts to happen, so I can’t speak to the method to hear. You can access the ability in the Settings app below Notifications > Summary Preview. From there, you can choose which apps to include in the summary and how often you want iOS to notify you throughout the day. I asked for a summary to come out at the end of the day. We’ll see how it goes after a week of the Sephora app spamming me about a sale.
The new Siri interface is really nice. Instead of a small orb with a bulb appearing outside, the screen lights up, showing Siri’s time. It did a great job of recognizing that I was talking to it or saying its name for other reasons; I’m very loud when I write, and Siri always ignored me when I was whispering to myself. You can also type to Siri in this update, which is available by double-tapping the bottom of the screen where the Home button normally resides.
There are a few other small features full of Apple Intelligence that you can access in iOS 18.1 beta 3. Apple Photos now allows you to create a memory by typing a summary of the photos and scenes you want to see, and you can customize the order of albums and memories. Mail has also been powered by AI magic with capabilities like Priority Messages, which knows which emails should pop up, and Smart Reply, which helps send email one-handed.
How to Use the Apple Photo Cleanup Feature
Like the Magic Eraser in Google Photos, the magic of Apple’s Clean Up feature is only available through the Apple Photos app. You can use the feature with a photo taken with any phone, iPhone or not, but for now, most of what I tried to edit are photos taken with the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
If you’re using the latest beta, tap to edit the photo, then swipe until you see the Cleanup option. Tap that. If your iPhone catches on background noise, it will highlight objects and other small objects throughout the image to remove them. In some cases, it will go to extremes–for example, asking if you want to remove any evidence of a knob on a complex front door. Fortunately, you can undo and redo the edit as you move through the image. You can also scroll and select the areas you want the app to organize,
I tried Cleanup on a few photos. For the first one, I tried to scrub the second person in a fireside photo at WWDC with iJustine, head of AI John Giannandrea, and Apple’s SVP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi. Clean Up had difficulty reproducing the pattern on Giannandrea’s chair. The second picture successfully determined my shadow and the Tamagotchi hanging from my bag. The third attempt offered to remove a few coats and items hanging from the back of the scene. I also let it rub the bump, and I was impressed how well it filled every part of the door. The fourth attempt again fell off the cliff like before.
Like Google’s Magic Eraser, Apple’s Clean Up works best on simple topics and backgrounds. And like Google’s magic eraser, Clean Up still has a lot of work to do. I liked that it could scrub ordinary things in the background and make them look like they weren’t there before, but this is the same thing that Android users can do. It’s great to see Apple reaching out to everyone and offering features that are now standard on most mobile operating systems. But this is not the true power of Apple Intelligence. It’s just a small sample of what’s to come in full when iOS 18 rolls out to everyone. We’ll have more to say about Apple Intelligence after the iPhone launch event in September.
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