The best Magic Eraser alternatives if you don’t own a Google Pixel 6

Google always has a few software tricks up its sleeve when it launches its new Pixel smartphones, and we have to admit, some of them have been pretty darn good. ‘Hold for Me’ still ranks as numero uno for us. With Google jumping back into the flagship territory (and creating some serious competition for the best smartphones you can buy) with the Google Pixel 6 series, the company had to give the phone the same treatment. Google brought Magic Eraser to make the Pixel 6 series stand out from a saturated Android world.

Magic Eraser wants to make photobombers a thing of the past. Did a random person walking behind you spoil the best shot? With Magic Eraser, Google automatically identifies people (sometimes objects) in the background and removes them with a single tap. When it can’t identify a human or when you want to remove an object, you can doodle over the unwanted area, and Google tries its best to make it seem like it wasn’t there.

The tool is exclusive to the Pixel 6 series and won’t be available for any other phones anytime soon (although there is a lengthy workaround for Pixel users running Android 12). But that’s not the end of the road because there are a few Magic Eraser alternatives that might work for you. Not all of them are free or as good as Magic Eraser, but they give you an idea of how the technology is more widely available than you may think and how close some of these alternatives are to matching Google’s AI prowess.

Magic Eraser

Google’s implementation is the most intuitive of all, and because it’s built right into the Photos app means you won’t have to mess around with downloading and updating another app. Unlike other tools in this list, Google’s solution is the only one that automatically identifies people, making the process seamless (although it doesn’t work every time).

We selected four images to give you an idea of how these alternatives work compared to Magic Eraser. These photos roughly represent the varying editing jobs you might want to do with a tool like that. We intend to remove the person standing in the first image, the chilies in the second, the hydrant in the third, and the dangling overhead wire in the last one.

Let’s check Google Photo Magic Eraser in action.

1. Launch Google Photos and open the image you want to play around with.
2. Tap Edit.

3. Go to the Tools tab and tap Magic Eraser to initiate the tool.

4. If Google can identify objects or people, you’ll see them masked in a white layer.
5. Tapping on the white layer makes the people or objects disappear.
6. Alternatively, you can paint over the element you want to remove or circle it.

Magic Eraser works best with humans, but as you can see in the third image, it did a good job of removing the fire hydrant and wire. However, Magic Eraser isn’t smart enough to remove shadows; it missed out on the chili’s shadow even when we painted over it. We can expect the tool to get better over time, but it certainly produces images worth sharing even the way it is now.

Snapseed

Also owned by Google, Snapseed is one of the most reliable photo-editing apps. The app has a Heal tool to remove unwanted objects from images. It’s free to use and is also available for iOS devices. Follow the steps below to remove unwanted objects or people in Snapseed.

1. Download and install Snapseed from the Google Play Store.
2. Open Snapseed and tap the + button to load an image.
3. Tap Tools.

4. Choose Healing from the menu and paint over the objects you want to remove.

Snapseed is not as good at removing objects and people as it is at reproducing predictive patterns (see this, for instance). It doesn’t use a sophisticated algorithm to artificially create a part of the image. Instead, it uses neighboring pixels to fill in the selected area. If that’s what you need, Snapseed will work better, but on the whole, it’s not as attractive as some other alternatives in the list below.

TouchRetouch

If you don’t mind paying for an app that can help you remove unwanted elements, TouchRetouch is worth two bucks. It’s a no-nonsense app and, as you’d expect from a paid app, doesn’t push any annoying ads in your face.

Here’s how to use TouchRetouch:

1. Purchase the TouchRetouch app from Google Play Store and open it.
2. Click the Albums icon and load your selected image.
3. Tap Object Removal and highlight the parts you want to erase, then tap Go.

As you can see in the images above, TouchRetouch does a really good job. Notice how well it removes the overhead wire in the fourth image without bothering the busy background. Unlike Magic Eraser, it also handles the chili shadow in the second image.

Lightroom

Lightroom Mobile also offers a Healing tool that can be used for similar purposes, but it’s more of a professional tool than the others on our list. It gives you control over what you want to replace the highlighted part with, but the process can take several minutes. Lightroom for Android is only available as part of a broader subscription package that starts at $10/month USD.

Here’s how to use Lightroom Mobile.

1. Download the Lightroom app from the link below and open it.
2. Select the images you want to import and edit using the FAB in the lower-right corner.
3. Choose the Healing tool at the bottom and paint over the part of the object you want to remove.

4. You can then select which part of the image you would like to use to replace the deleted part.
5. When you’re happy with the result, tap the checkmark in the upper-right corner.

Lightroom’s results aren’t that impressive, but that’s because it takes a lot of time and patience to get better results. We only recommend using it if you’re a paying subscriber and want complete control over the removal process.

Cleanup.pictures

Unlike other apps in this list, Cleanup.pictures is a web tool based on Samsung AI and is accessible across devices, including your computer or tablet. It’s completely free to use and doesn’t host ads on the website. This one’s the best of all the tools mentioned so far, and the results below speak for themselves.

Here’s how to use Cleanup.pictures:

1. Head over to Cleanup.pictures and upload the image you want to alter.
2. Change the brush size according to your needs and highlight the part you want to erase.

This tool has been the most consistent so far in terms of performance. Notice how it filled in the wood pattern perfectly in the second image and removed the overhead wire in the fourth, making it seem like it wasn’t there. It did very well with human subjects and did a great job of not leaving artifacts behind in the first image.

If you don’t mind using a web tool, Cleanup.pictures should probably be your first choice, as it performs better than Magic Eraser in certain cases.

Samsung Gallery

If you own a recent Samsung flagship, you probably didn’t know that your phone had a built-in object remover. Samsung didn’t market it as much. The feature is available on some of the best Samsung phones released after 2020 running One UI 3.1 or later.

Here’s how to use the object remover in Samsung Gallery:

1. Open Gallery, and then select the photo you want to edit.
2. Tap the pencil icon at the bottom of the screen, and then tap the three vertical dots.
3. Open Labs, and then tap the switch next to the Object Eraser to enable the feature.
4. You’ll see an eraser icon in the editing suite.
5. Highlight an object or section of your photo and then tap Erase to remove it.

Samsung’s object eraser tool removes objects cleanly and doesn’t struggle with complex scenarios. Considering the pictures used for this test, it performs a better job than Magic Eraser. Samsung improved the function with the One UI 4.1 update (based on Android 12). Let’s check it in action.

Object Eraser in One UI 4.1

First shipped with the Samsung Galaxy S22 series, the default Gallery app can now remove shadows and reflections. To keep this comparison fair, we decided to test whether the tool can remove shadows in images one and three.

In both cases, the tool failed to identify and remove the shadows successfully. It’s also worth noting that you can’t remove shadows after manually erasing something in an image.

This is not to say that the new features don’t work, but that they might not work with all images you feed it. Here are a few samples that show the results it produces (the original photos are on the left and the edited photos are on the right).

As you see in the results above, the tool comes in handy to brighten up dark photos, but it can make certain photos look unnatural. It can also remove reflections, but the results are also a hit-and-miss.

Comparing a set side-by-side is the easiest way to see which one does the best job. It looks like Magic Eraser does the best job over the entire scene, including the shadow, though a slight shimmering effect remains around the water. Cleanup.pictures also does well here, especially around the water, but leaves a larger shadow that suggests someone has just been erased.

Remove photobombers from your perfect image

There’s no doubt that Google has democratized a feature that was once accessible only to creative professionals and made it easy to use. However, you can turn to plenty of alternatives if you don’t own a Pixel 6; some are even better at getting the job done. If you mostly use the front camera on your phone, read our dedicated post to up your selfie game.