Google Pixel 6 is betting big on photos with Magic Eraser and Motion mode

Google’s new flagship phones will let you edit a photobomber or an unsightly background clutter out of your photos. The new Google Pixel 6 and 6 Pro were unveiled on Tuesday, bringing with them powerful new imaging tricks such as Magic Eraser, which works similarly to Photoshop’s content-aware capability.

The search giant explained in a blog post what imaging features the new devices will have when they go on sale on October 28. The Pixel 6 phones can remove distractions from your photos, such as power poles and even people who appear in the background, thanks to Google’s Tensor chipset.

Magic Eraser is a new feature in Google Photos that predicts what object you might want to remove. It accomplishes this by detecting potential photobombers or unwanted objects in your snapshot and then allowing you to delete them all or individually with a few taps. You can even ignore Google’s suggestions and keep some elements in place.

In addition to its own suggestions, Magic Eraser allows you to manually select what you want to remove by circling or brushing over an object or person. After you remove an element, Google’s machine learning system will fill in the void to ensure that the resulting image still looks natural.

Google’s Magic Eraser is not limited to images taken with Pixel 6 phones. This means you can use the feature to improve photos taken on non-Pixel devices 20 years ago.

Aside from Magic Eraser, the Pixel 6 devices include other unique photo-editing features such as Motion mode, which consists of the “Action Pan” and “Long Exposure” options. The former detects moving objects and blurs their backgrounds, whereas the latter can create a light trail, which is ideal for night shots.

For blurry photos, there’s a new Face Unblur feature that adds crispness and sharpness to your images. The Tensor chip also allows the Pixel 6 phones’ cameras to capture skin tones more accurately.

And, thanks to Google’s new partnership with Snap, you can access the Snapchat camera directly from your lockscreen by double-tapping the Pixel 6’s back. In the coming months, Google Pixel’s live translation will also be available in Snapchat’s chat feature on the Pixel 6, with support for more than 10 languages.

The new features mark Google’s increased efforts to up the ante in the smartphone camera race, where many of the best Android phones have already caught up with the search giant. However, it remains to be seen whether the Mountain View-based tech giant will make those capabilities available to other smartphones.