The best Magic Eraser alternatives if you don't have a Pixel 6

Bid goodbye to photobombers

Google always has a few software tricks up its sleeves when it launches its new Pixel smartphones, and I have to admit, some of them have been pretty darn good — ‘Hold for Me’ still ranks as numero uno for me. With so much riding on the Pixel 6, Google had to give the phone the same treatment, and if you haven’t been living under a rock, you’ve probably already heard about Magic Eraser.

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 even doodle over the unwanted area, and Google will try its best to make it seem like it wasn’t even there.

Unfortunately, the tool is exclusive to the Pixel 6, and it won’t be available for any other phones anytime soon (Older Pixel phones running on Android 12 can try their luck, though). 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.

To give you an idea of how these alternatives work in comparison with Magic Eraser, I’ve selected the four different images you see below. I’ve selected them to roughly represent the varying editing jobs you might want to do with a tool like that. I intend to remove the person standing in the first image, the chilies in the second one, the hydrant in the third, and the dangling overhead wire in the last one.

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Magic Eraser

Google’s implementation is the most intuitive of all, and the fact that it’s built right into the Photos app means you won’t have to mess around with downloading and updating yet 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).

Here’s how to use Magic Eraser:

1. Open the image you want to play around with and tap Edit.
2. Head over to the Tools tab and tap on Magic Eraser to initiate the tool.
3. If Google can identify objects or people, you'll see them masked in a white layer.
4. Tapping on the white layer will make the people or objects disappear.
5. Alternatively, you can paint over the element you want to remove or even circle it.

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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 as well. However, Magic Eraser isn't not smart enough to remove shadows; it missed out on the chili’s shadow even when I 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 out there, and its Heal tool can also help remove unwanted objects from images. It’s completely free to use and is available for iOS devices as well.

Here’s how to use Snapseed:

1. Load an image and tap on Tools.
2. Choose Healing from the menu and simply paint over the objects you want to remove.

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Snapseed is not as good at removing objects and people as it is in reproducing predictive patterns (see this, for instance). It likely doesn’t use any sophisticated algorithm to artificially create a part of the image and instead chooses to use 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 definitely 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. Click on Albums icon and load your selected image.
2. Tap on Object Removal and highlight the parts you want to erase, then simply tap Go.

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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, however, that starts at $10/month USD.

Here’s how to use the Lightroom Mobile:

1. Select the images you want to import and edit using the FAB in the bottom right corner.
2. Choose the Healing tool at the bottom and paint over the part of the object you want to remove.​​​​
3. You can then select which part of the image you would like to use to replace the deleted part.
4. When you’re happy with the result, hit the checkmark in the top right corner.

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Lightroom’s results aren’t that impressive, but that’s because it takes a lot of time and patience to get better results. We’d only recommend using it if you’re already 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 — even your computer or tablet. It’s completely free to use and surprisingly doesn’t even host any ads on the website. This one’s the best of all the tools I’ve 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.

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This tool has been the most consistent so far in terms of performance. Notice how it filled in the wood pattern so 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 many Samsung flagships released in 2020 or later and that runn OneUI 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 on the three vertical dots.
3. Open Labs, and then tap the switch next to the Object Eraser to enable the feature.
4. You’ll now see an eraser icon in the editing suite.
5. You can now highlight an object or section of your photo and then tap Erase to remove it.

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Samsung's object eraser tool removes objects cleanly and doesn’t struggle with complex scenarios. Considering the pictures used for this test, it does perform a better job than Magic Eraser.

Object Eraser in One UI 4.1

Samsung touted a notable improvement to the object eraser tool on One UI 4.1 which first shipped with the Samsung Galaxy S22 series; it can now remove shadows and reflections too. To keep this comparison fair, we decided to test whether the tool can remove shadows in images one and three.

Unfortunately, in both these cases, the tool failed to identify the shadows and remove them successfully. It's also worth noting that you can't remove shadows after you've manually erased something in an image.

This is not to say that the new features don't work at all, but that they might not work with all images you feed it. In fact, we do have a few samples to show you the results it produces.

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As you see in the results above, the tool surely 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 all of them

Of course, comparing a set side-by-side is the easiest way to see which one does the best job. It looks here like Magic Eraser does the best job over the entire scene, including the shadow, though there is a slight shimmering effect remaining 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.

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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 and some of them are even better at getting the job done.

Manuel Vonau and Zachary Kew-Denniss contributed to this article.

Prasham Parikh (429 Articles Published)

Prasham is a victim of Samsung's marketing — he ended up choosing the S3 Mini over the Nexus 4. He has been writing about phones ever since and has regretted not sharing affiliate links with those who have asked for his suggestions. Oh, he was also an urban farmer once but you better not ask him what crops he was growing.

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