I Tried the Upgraded Apple Photos 'Clean Up' Tool, and It's Actually Pretty Good Now

**TL;DR:** I Tried the Upgraded Apple Photos 'Clean Up' Tool, and It's Actually Pretty Good Now

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Along with the brand new Siri AI , Apple is introducing a number of new Apple Intelligence features—including a trio of new AI tools in the Photos app. We've been here before: Apple previously released AI-powered image editing features like Clean Up, which didn't necessarily hit the mark compared to similar tools from competitors like Google or Samsung. But this year appears to be a bit different: Apple's newest models, including those that work off-device, are improving existing features and powering new tools.

For the most part, it seems to be a step in the right direction. Apple’s Clean Up tool is much better The new Clean Up tool is perhaps the most important update here. In iOS 26, Clean Up used Apple's on-device AI models to remove objects, but it was hit-or-miss. Clean Up was okay at basic tasks, but I found it couldn't remove surrounding shadows, nor could it replace an object with something that looked like it was originally part of the image. Clean Up now uses a hybrid approach.

For simple tweaks, like removing a small object, it uses an on-device model, just like in iOS 26. But, for bigger, more complex tasks (like removing an obstruction around your face), i

Source: Lifehacker

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Last updated: June 16, 2026.

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