Updated August 2026 · Google's and Samsung's own documentation for these erasers, read on 19 August 2026 · one app rating corrected, one hardware requirement removed, and the date these tools went free fixed
Use the eraser already on your phone, because Google made these tools free for everyone in 2024 and Samsung builds its own into Gallery. Zoom in before you brush, because a tight selection fills better. Pick targets against plain backgrounds, because that is where the fill is invisible. Expect it to fail on brick, foliage and crowds. Data checked: 19 August 2026.
You took a decent shot and then noticed it: a stranger walking through the frame, a power line across the sky, a bin, a sign you wish were not there. You almost certainly do not need a computer or a paid editor to clean that up. Your phone probably does it already, and where it falls short a couple of free apps fill the gap.
What follows is the built-in options first, because they are fastest and cost nothing, then the free third-party tools worth installing, and then the part most guides skip: exactly where these erasers fall apart, so you do not spend twenty minutes fighting a photo that was never going to work.
Check your gallery app first
Before installing anything, check the gallery app you already use. Both Google and Samsung ship object removal for free, and a tool that already holds your photos saves you the export-and-import dance.
If you have a Pixel, or you use Google Photos on any Android phone, you are looking at Magic Eraser. If you have a Galaxy, you have Object Eraser inside the Gallery editor. Work out which camp you are in and try that first; the third-party apps further down are the backup, not the starting point. If you are still deciding where to keep your shots, our roundup of gallery apps for Android covers which ones bundle editing tools like these.
Almost everyone. Try this first
Google Photos · 4.4 stars from 53,887,550 reviews · 10B+ installs · free, no ads, no in-app purchases on the listing · Play listing updated 19 August 2026 · Play listing · checked 19 August 2026
Magic Eraser began as a Pixel-only perk and was then a paid Google One feature, which is why plenty of guides still describe it that way. It has been free for everyone for a while now. Google's own announcement is dated April 2024 and says: "Starting on May 15, many of our AI-powered editing tools, like Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur and Portrait light, will be available to anyone using Google Photos, no subscription required."
Google reorganised the editor, so the route many guides still give is out of date. Its current help page documents the search route, which is the one that survives reshuffles: "open the Google Photos app. Open the photo that you want to edit. At the bottom, tap Edit, Search. Type your desired editing tool. For example, Magic Eraser." If you would rather tap through, Google notes the tool now lives in a specific tab: "To remove unwanted distractions, in the 'Actions' tab, tap Magic Eraser." Anything telling you to look under Tools is describing the older editor.
With the tool open you can "tap, draw a circle around, or brush the area of the photo you want to edit," then tap Erase. Two refinements are worth knowing: you can pinch a selection with two fingers to resize it, and "Refine selection" lets you add or subtract from what you have grabbed, which is how you rescue a selection that took half the background with it.
If you are looking for Camouflage, the option that recoloured a distraction instead of deleting it, Google no longer documents it. The current page pairs Erase with Move, which repositions the selected object rather than removing it. Google has not announced Camouflage's removal, so it may still exist on some versions, but it is no longer in the instructions and is not something to count on.
Two details worth getting right, because both are widely misreported. The hardware requirement is modest but not uniform. Google's help page says: "Some editing features aren't supported on 32-bit devices. To use most features, you must have at least 3 GB RAM and Android 8.0 and up. Other features may require 4 GB or 6 GB RAM. Some features are only available on Pixel." So 3 GB and Android 8.0 is the floor for most of it, the heavier generative tools want more, and a very old 32-bit phone may be short of some tools entirely. And the monthly cap people mention belongs to Magic Editor, the heavier generative tool that repositions and resizes subjects, not to the eraser: Google says "all Google Photos users on Android and iOS will get 10 Magic Editor saves per month," and to go beyond that "you'll need a Pixel device or a Premium Google One plan (2TB and above)." Plain object removal has no such limit.
Galaxy owners, and it also erases shadows
Galaxy phones have their own version inside the Gallery app, and it does not involve Google Photos at all. Samsung's own support page describes it simply: "The Object Eraser is a Galaxy photo editing feature that allows you to select and erase unwanted objects from images."
Samsung's steps are: "Open Gallery. Select an image and tap Edit icon. Tap More settings icon. Tap Object eraser. Tap objects in the image to erase and when complete tap Erase." The tools icon is a row of circles, sometimes tucked under the more-options menu, which is the step people usually miss.
The part most guides miss entirely: it also erases shadows and reflections, as separate one-tap tools. Samsung documents both alongside object removal, saying "Shadow Erase/Light Reflection Erase uses AI to analyse images for unwanted shadows and light reflections and automatically erases them." Both live in the same place: after tapping Object eraser, choose Erase shadow or Erase reflection. If your problem is a hard shadow across a face or a window reflection rather than an object, that is the tool, and nobody tells you it is there.
Newer Galaxy phones also carry a heavier generative eraser, and it is worth knowing where it actually lives, because it is easy to send people to the wrong place. It is not in Gallery's Studio, which is Samsung's video project space. Samsung's own instructions put it in the photo editor: "Tap the Edit icon (the pencil), and then tap Photo Assist icon (the blue circle with stars). Tap the AI erase icon (it looks like a circle with an eraser) in the top right corner, and then tap or draw around the object to remove, then tap Erase." Samsung says it "will remove the unwanted detail and fill in the photo's missing parts," and notes it needs "One UI 6.1 or higher."
The classic Object Eraser is quicker for small things; the generative route reconstructs more but takes longer and sometimes invents texture that looks wrong. Try the simple one first.
On whether Galaxy AI stays free, Samsung's own site currently contradicts itself, so here is both wordings and where each sits. Its Galaxy AI page says: "Galaxy AI basic features provided by Samsung are free. Future releases may include enhanced features or new services that are offered on a paid basis." No end date. But an older footnote still sits on Samsung's AI products page reading "Galaxy AI features will be provided for free until the end of 2025 on supported Samsung Galaxy devices." The current position is the first one: no deadline, but no permanent guarantee either. If you meet the 2025 line while searching, it is the stale one.
Small, precise patches on a hard background
Snapseed · 3.9 stars from 1,773,094 reviews · 100M+ installs · free, no ads, no in-app purchases · by Google · Play listing updated 18 August 2026 · Play listing · checked 19 August 2026
Snapseed is Google's other photo editor, and its Healing tool is the old-school approach: brush over a small distraction and it samples nearby pixels to patch the hole. No AI guesswork, no account, and Google's own listing describes it for precisely this job, "Healing, remove the uninvited neighbor from a group picture." The terms are unusually clean for a free app, in Google's words: "30+ pro tools and filters, no subscriptions, purchases, ads, or watermarks."
Two honest caveats before you install it. Snapseed sits at 3.9 stars, low for a Google app, following a substantial redesign that a lot of long-time users disliked, so read recent reviews rather than the historical reputation. And Healing is built for small things: wires, spots, a distant bin. It will not erase a whole person standing against a detailed wall, and trying is how people conclude the app is broken.
YouCam Perfect · 3.9 stars from 2,057,563 reviews · 100M+ installs · free, contains ads, in-app purchases $0.69 to $129.99 · Play listing updated 17 August 2026 · Play listing · checked 19 August 2026
YouCam Perfect has an AI object removal tool with an automatic mode that detects unwanted objects and a manual brush for selecting them yourself, and the removal works without paying. Expect steady upsell prompts and ads around it. At 3.9 stars it is no better rated than Snapseed, so treat it as a second attempt at a photo the built-in tool mangled rather than an upgrade.
Photoroom · 4.7 stars from 3,988,401 reviews · 100M+ installs · free tier, no ads, in-app purchases $5.99 to $999.99 · Play listing updated 18 August 2026 · Play listing · checked 19 August 2026
Photoroom is the best-rated of the three by a distance at 4.7, and includes a Retouch eraser alongside its background tools. It is built around product and listing photography, which is where it shines. Its free tier carries limits that have changed more than once, and the in-app purchases run to $999.99, so check what a clean, full-resolution export costs before you rely on it for anything that matters.
Four habits that do most of the work
Whatever tool you land on, the workflow is the same, and it matters more than the choice of app.
Why fills smear, and what to do
Here is the part most guides skip. These erasers do not know what was behind the thing you deleted. They guess, by copying and blending nearby pixels or generating new ones. On a plain background the guess is invisible. On a railing, a patterned floor, faces in a crowd or repeating tiles, the guess shows: smears, warped lines, a smudgy patch, or a ghost of the object you tried to remove.
When that happens you have three moves, in order of how often they work. Zoom in and erase in smaller pieces, so the tool has less to invent at once. Patch the worst of the smear afterwards with Snapseed's Healing tool, which samples real pixels instead of inventing them. Or accept that some photos cannot be fixed cleanly on a phone.
The move people resist, which is usually the right one: recrop instead. Cropping a distraction out of the edge of the frame beats a bad fill in the middle of it every time, and it takes five seconds. An eraser is the right tool for something in the middle of your subject, not for something you could simply cut off.
Keep the original
Once the result looks right, save a copy rather than overwriting the original, so you can redo it later with a better tool or a steadier hand. Most of these save back to your gallery automatically, which is convenient and also how originals quietly get replaced.
If you are posting the photo, this is the natural moment to add a light filter or nudge the colour, since an edited patch can read slightly flatter than the rest of the frame and a global adjustment hides the seam. Our guides to photo filter apps and the wider photo and video hub cover what comes next, along with our picks for photo editor apps, and if the shot you want to fix is one you already deleted, recovering deleted photos is the place to start instead.
Free, and you have not needed a subscription since 2024. Google's announcement says that from 15 May that year, tools "like Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur and Portrait light" became "available to anyone using Google Photos, no subscription required." The subscription requirement people remember applies to Magic Editor, a different and heavier tool. Checked 19 August 2026.
Less than you might think. Google's published requirement is a device with "at least 3 GB RAM and Android 8.0/iOS 15 or higher," and it adds that "feature availability varies by device." That covers most phones sold in recent years. If the tool does not appear, the Google Photos app itself may simply need updating.
That is Magic Editor, not Magic Eraser. Google gives all Google Photos users on Android and iOS 10 Magic Editor saves per month, and says to go beyond it "you'll need a Pixel device or a Premium Google One plan (2TB and above)." Plain object removal is uncapped, so for erasing a photobomber the limit never applies.
No. Samsung builds Object Eraser into the Gallery app. Samsung's steps are to open Gallery, select the image and tap the edit icon, tap the more-settings icon, tap Object eraser, then tap the objects and tap Erase. It also erases shadows and light reflections as separate options in the same menu, which is worth knowing because almost nobody mentions it.
In the photo editor, not in Studio, which is Samsung's video space. Samsung's route is to tap the edit pencil, then the Photo Assist icon, then the AI erase icon in the top right, and it needs One UI 6.1 or higher. On cost, Samsung's current wording is that "Galaxy AI basic features provided by Samsung are free," with future releases possibly adding paid ones. An older Samsung page still says free "until the end of 2025"; that line is stale. Checked 19 August 2026.
Because the tool does not know what was behind the object. It fills the gap by copying and blending nearby pixels or generating new ones, which is invisible against sky, water or grass and obvious against brick, foliage, patterned floors or a crowd. Erasing in smaller pieces helps, as does patching the result with Snapseed's Healing tool, but some photos cannot be fixed cleanly on a phone.
Snapseed first, for small precise patches: it is free with no ads, no purchases and no watermarks, and its Healing tool samples real nearby pixels instead of inventing new ones. Be aware it sits at 3.9 stars after a redesign many users disliked. YouCam Perfect is the alternative for a second automatic attempt, also 3.9, and it carries ads and upsells.
Usually not cleanly on a phone. That is the hardest case for every tool here, because there is a large area to invent and a complex pattern to match. Try erasing in smaller sections, and consider recropping instead. Cropping a person out of the edge of the frame nearly always looks better than a failed fill in the middle of it.
The rest of the image is untouched, so overall quality does not drop, but the patched area is reconstructed rather than photographed and can look slightly softer or flatter than its surroundings. Saving a copy rather than overwriting the original means you can always go back, which is the habit worth keeping whatever tool you use.
Checked 19 August 2026: this page gave hardware requirements, pricing and app ratings without citing a source for any of them, so all three are now checked against Google's own announcement, Samsung's own support page and each app's own Play listing. The core advice held up: try the built-in eraser first, and expect fills to smear on busy backgrounds. Three things were wrong. YouCam Perfect was described as carrying "a 4.4-star rating from over two million reviews"; the review count was right but the rating is 3.9, and Snapseed is 3.9 too, so this page now names both rather than implying a quality gap that does not exist. The requirements listed "a 64-bit chip" alongside the RAM and Android version; Google's published note says only "at least 3 GB RAM and Android 8.0/iOS 15 or higher," so the chip requirement has gone. And the timing was off by two years: this page said Magic Eraser became free for everyone "as of 2026," when Google announced it in April 2024 for a 15 May rollout. Two additions. Google's monthly cap belongs to Magic Editor rather than the eraser, and the threshold to exceed it is a Pixel or a Google One plan of 2TB and above, both now stated precisely. And Samsung's Object Eraser also erases shadows and light reflections as separate one-tap tools, which the previous version did not mention at all despite Samsung documenting it in the same place as the object tool. Corrected within the day, twice. The Google Photos steps told readers to swipe the tool row to "Tools," which is the pre-2025 editor; Google's current page puts Magic Eraser in the "Actions" tab and documents a search route as the primary way in, both now quoted. The erase-versus-camouflage choice has gone too: Google's page no longer mentions Camouflage and pairs Erase with Move instead, so this page says that rather than describing a button readers may not have. The hardware line has been restored to Google's fuller wording, since flatly dropping the 32-bit question overcorrected in the other direction: Google does say some features are unsupported on 32-bit devices and that others need 4 GB or 6 GB of RAM. Separately, this page sent Galaxy owners to Gallery's Studio section for the heavier generative eraser. Studio is Samsung's video project space and no Samsung page places a photo eraser inside it; the documented route is the photo editor's Photo Assist icon and then AI erase, which is now quoted from Samsung directly along with its One UI 6.1 requirement. That error came from the previous version and was repeated here without checking. Samsung's position on whether Galaxy AI stays free has also been added, including the fact that Samsung's own site currently carries two contradictory statements, since a reader who goes looking will find the older one. A comparison table, an "Our answer" capsule, a dated verification box and this changelog are new.
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