Discover How Apple Intelligence Can Revolutionize Your Photos

What to Know

• Upgrade to iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, or macOS 15.1 or higher for access to Apple Intelligence on eligible devices.
• In Photos, enter descriptive text in the search bar to view related images, create albums, or make memory videos.
• Use the Clean Up tool to remove unwanted elements or distractions from photos.

Apple Intelligence offers expanded ownership over your Photos library across your devices by allowing you to find the photos and videos you want to see more easily, create memory movies, and edit distractions. This article explains how to use these enhancements.

These instructions show the processes available on a Mac, but the steps are similar iOS and iPadOS.

Use Apple Intelligence to Find Specific Photos and Videos

With Apple Intelligence, Siri simplifies image navigation and curation. 

Rather than tapping or clicking through albums searching for a particular image, you can use the new Photos search bar to locate a photo or video based on a description.

To see this capability in action, follow these steps:

1. Open the Photos app.

2. Tap or click the search bar.

3. Enter descriptive text, such as “Trips to the zoo,” and press Enter or tap Search.

   

4. Choose See All to view all results, or collections, in memory video format.

   

   On iPhone and iPad, use the up and down arrows to sort results in chronological or reverse chronological order.

5. To filter the results on a Mac, use the Filter By drop-down menu to filter by photos, videos, edited items, and more.

   

   On iPad and iPhone, a filtering icon (layered lines) appears by highlighting a collection from the search results and switching to the Photos view.

6. Or, Command+click or tap Select to choose multiple photos and assign them to a new album, share them, or choose another action.

   

Use Apple Intelligence to Create Memory Movies

Alternatively, on iPhone and iPad, you can use Apple Intelligence to create a memory movie.

To do that, scroll down to Memories > select Create > enter a description of what you’d like to see as a memory movie > and select Done to view the finished result.

Apple Intelligence Photo Editing With the Clean Up Tool

One of the most significant perks of Apple Intelligence with Photos is the ability to edit out distractions with the Clean Up tool.

Here’s the process on a Mac, with additional notes about how this feature works on iPads and iPhones.

1. Double-click an image in the Photos app.

2. Select Edit.

   

3. Choose Clean Up.

   

   On iPhone and iPad, tap the Edit button, which looks like a stack of three lines and three circles.

4. Adjust the Clean Up brush size using the slider and click, brush, tap, or circle the area to clean up or remove.

   

   On iOS and iPadOS, use two fingers to pinch and zoom in for more precise editing. On Mac, use that same gesture on the trackpad or use the zoom slider.

5. Click Done to save your edits.
   

   

What to Know About Apple Intelligence and Photos

Apple Intelligence enhancements to the Photos app appear across iPhones, iPads, and Macs, though you need an eligible device.

After updating to iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, or macOS 15.1 or higher, select Settings or System Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Get Apple Intelligence to turn it on.

Here are the main things to know about eligibility:

• Which iOS/iPadOS/macOS versions do you need?: You need at least iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, or macOS 15.1 to benefit from Apple Intelligence in Photos.
• Eligible Macs: To benefit from advanced Photos search and the Clean Up tool, you need a Mac with an M1 chip or later. The memory movie feature isn’t available for Photos on Macs with macOS 15.1 or 15.2.
• Eligible iPads: iPads with an M1 chip or later or iPad mini (A17 Pro and later) can take advantage of advanced descriptive search, memory movie creation, and the Clean Up tool.
• Eligible iPhones: You’ll need an iPhone 16, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or iPhone 15 Pro to use all of the Apple Intelligence features in Photos.
  

As of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS 15.2, you can also create a Genmoji using a person and a corresponding photo in your Photos library. Use descriptive text to bring up photos of that person and select Choose a Person to finish generating.

Unlocking Apple Intelligence: What Every Apple User Needs to Know