iPhone's Clean Up or Google's Magic Editor is better at removing objects?

As a relatively new invention, the use of AI on smartphones is still limited. Currently, the option to remove unwanted objects from images is one of the most popular and highly rated. To see which solution performs better, let's compare Apple's Clean Up feature on the iPhone with Google's Magic Editor.

Scenario 1: Remove fire extinguisher behind Christmas display

Let's start with something simple: A scene from a Christmas market in Mumbai, India, featuring a Christmas-themed ice cream stall. However, a fire extinguisher in the background ruins the festive atmosphere. We used Magic Editor and Clean Up to remove the fire extinguisher, and found that Google's Magic Eraser did a better job.

Magic Editor effectively removed the fire extinguisher while preserving the shadows and details of the wood wall. Clean Up, on the other hand, struggled, blending parts of the concrete floor into the wood wall area.

Scenario 2: Remove the main subject from the image

These object removal tools are often used to remove unwanted or side objects from a frame, but what if you need to remove the main subject? This demo explores that situation. In this image, an owl figurine is placed on a white sofa with a pink cushion behind it. The task is to remove the owl figurine. The results from Magic Editor and Apple Clean Up are stunning.

In this case, Apple's Clean Up tool does a better job. The removal is clean, with better blending and fewer visible artifacts—but it still leaves some shadows on the left side. Magic Editor, on the other hand, struggles, leaving the padding and the area where the owl statue is located smudged.

In this photo of a boat on a lake, Magic Editor produced significantly better results. While Apple's Clean Up successfully removed the boat, Magic Editor not only removed it, but also seamlessly blended the area and removed the lake's shadow.

Situation 3: Clear people in front of the church

This photo was taken on a street in Pescara, Italy, and shows the architecture of a historic church. The original image shows a fairly busy street with a few people standing in front of the entrance, some people on the sides, and a few bicycles. After comparing the results, Magic Editor does a better job here.

While the iPhone produced clearer results, it missed key details, such as completely erasing the stairs in front of the church, leaving the man on the left, and cutting out the bottom of the street lamp on the right. Magic Editor also struggled with the stairs, but kept the bottom of the street lamp and erased the man on the left.

Which object removal tool is better?

On a case-by-case basis, Google's Magic Editor comes out on top. While Apple's Clean Up tool is a little easier to use—you'll need to search through the photo editor's tools section in Google Photos to find Magic Editor—and often produces aesthetically pleasing results, its accuracy isn't always consistent.

Magic Editor's results are generally better (its object removal is great) because it takes into account the surroundings of the object being removed. However, for a beta tool, Apple Clean Up does a great job. It's impressive to see Apple catching up so quickly with such impressive results.

However, like most AI tools, the object removal tools still have a lot of room for improvement – ​​results will vary each time you use Clean Up or Magic Editor on either device. But most importantly, it's great to have these tools at your fingertips – something that would have been completely unthinkable not so long ago.

Micah Soto

Update 06 January 2025