Your iPhone will finally get a feature update matching Google's best AI trick

Apple is holding an event at the beginning of September where it is expected to announce the latest iPhones, alongside new Apple Watch models and maybe even new AirPods.

There is plenty of speculation surrounding all the various devices, but the iPhone 16 models are key as they will support Apple Intelligence, something that only the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max from the current line-up will offer support for when it arrives.

For some however, Apple Intelligence has sort of arrived. Not quite, but if you are running the latest beta versions of the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 software, a glimpse of what is to come on the 15 Pro models and the new iPhone 16 models has appeared. 

A couple of new Apple Intelligence features have landed for the beta testers of iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1, including the Clean Up tool in the Photos app.

This tool is powered by AI and much like Google's Magic Eraser that has been around for several years now, it allows you to remove background objects, or unwanted shadows and reflections from your images. The bin in your otherwise excellent selfie for example, or the car in the way of a lovely landscape shot. 

The Clean Up tool will work on any photos within your Photos library, including shots taken with a previous iPhone or iPad, or DSLR camera. It will work for finer details when you zoom in too, as Engadget points out, and you can tap to remove, circle or brush over an image. 

Alongside the Clean Up tool, the iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1 betas also usher in summaries for other apps alongside Mail and Message notifications already available. There's no sign of priority notifications as yet, image and emoji generation, personal context for Siri or ChatGPT integration as yet. 

If you aren't on the beta software, you can download and run it in order to see these features mentioned above before they land officially. Do be warned though – betas can be buggy.

The whole point of a beta is to iron out the kinks, after all – and you will also need to have either an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max or an iPad running the Apple Silicon M1 chip or later to get access to the Apple Intelligence features. 

Apple hasn't announced when the final builds of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 will be released, but if it follows its usual pattern, it's likely to be the Monday after the iPhone event.

That would see the first software release on or around the 16 September. Apple Intelligence features aren't expected in the first build though, and instead are expected to roll out with iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1, which are thought to be arriving in October.