How to remove the background from images on your iPhone or iPad

Apple’s upcoming software updates for iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 will bring a great new feature that allows you to instantly highlight a subject in a photo by separating it from the background. Once extracted, you can paste, save, or place the clipping anywhere as a new image, and you can even make it a sticker on messaging apps.

Previously, you had to use a third-party app like Erase.bg or Photoshop Express on your iPhone or iPad to cut out an object in your photo automatically. Now you can easily pick up and cut objects in pictures without any additional application. Apple built this feature into iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS 13, and it works in Photos, Files, Messages, Safari, and apps that use Quick Look, as well as screenshots.

The Apple demo below shows how a dog can be separated from the background in a photo and then dragged into the Messages app.

How the cut tool works

If you were to print out a photo of your pet and cut it perfectly with scissors, you could place the cutout anywhere. Same concept in iOS and iPadOS 16. When you cut out an object using Apple’s new feature, you erase the photo’s background, make everything around the cutout transparent, and save the result as a new PNG image, a file type that supports transparent backgrounds.

It’s like magic. It is actually the product of an advanced machine learning model accelerated by CoreML and Neural Engine to perform 40 billion operations in just milliseconds.

You can cut an object or object from all types of image files, including screenshots, JPEGs, portraits, Live Photos, RAW files, videos, and more. There must be an obvious separation between the objects and the background, otherwise it may not work regardless of the file type.

Cautions

Apple iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 are currently in beta testing and are not expected to be available to everyone until this fall. You can always install the beta on your iPhone or iPad to try out the new cut tool and other features right now if you’re itching.

The tool uses a lot of background processing power to cut out objects from photos, so don’t expect it to work perfectly during the beta testing period. I’ve had issues cutting out objects from animated images with loaded backgrounds, and it only seems to work in Live Photos sometimes. However, things will improve when Apple pushes through the beta.

This feature only works on devices with an A12 Bionic chip or later, as shown in the lists below. This means that this feature will not work on iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and some iPad models.

iPhone models that support cutouts

• iPhone SE (3rd generation) – 2022
• iPhone 13, 13 mini, 13 Pro, 13 Pro Max – 2021
• iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro, 12 Pro Max – 2020
• iPhone SE (2nd generation) – 2020
• iPhone 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max – 2019
• iPhone XS, XS Max, XR – 2018

iPad models that support cutouts

• iPad Air (5th generation) – 2022
• iPad (9th generation), iPad mini (6th generation) – 2021
• iPad Pro 12.9 (5th generation), iPad Pro 11 (3rd generation) – 2021
• iPad (8th generation), iPad Air (4th generation) – 2020
• iPad Pro 12.9 (4th generation), iPad Pro 11 (2nd generation) – 2020
• iPad mini (5th generation), iPad Air (3rd generation) – 2019
• iPad Pro 12.9 (3rd generation), iPad Pro 11 (1st generation) – 2018

How to actually cut out objects in photos

To avoid confusion, there are several ways to cut an object from a photo in iOS and iPadOS 16. The method you use depends on your app and how you view the photo or video.

For portraits and all non-moving image formats, use the most appropriate method below. The same goes for Live Photos, but it may take a few tries before everything works. You can also disable “Live”for Live Photo to try the cut feature on a still version of the image. For video, you need to pause the video and make sure the object is clear.

The more noticeable the separation between the objects and the background, the easier it will be to cut out something. If the image or video is blurry, you won’t be able to select anything.

Open the Copy/Share menu

Open your image in Photos, Messages, or another supported app. Then touch and hold the object or objects you want to cut. Release when you see a glowing line around an object or objects. When you release the button, the Copy/Share menu will appear, after which you can:

• Click “Copy”to add the new image file to the clipboard. You can then paste it somewhere in another application.
• Click “Share”to open a shared sheet where you can copy the new image file to the clipboard, save it to “Photos”or “Files”, make it a profile picture for one of your contacts, send it in messages, share it in social network. media application you have installed and more.

Drag

Open your image in Photos, Messages, or another supported app. Then touch and hold the object or objects you want to cut. You will see a glowing line around the object or objects, but don’t let go of it just yet. Instead, drag the object or objects from their original position until the cutout is reduced.

While holding the image cutout, use another finger to switch to another application and find the location where you want to place the image file. Finally, release the new image file to place it where needed.

Long press on files

Open the image in Files or another supported application. In Files, navigate to the directory where the photo is, but don’t open the image. Instead, tap and hold on a file to open its quick action menu. In the menu, you should see a “Quick Actions”option – tap it to see more options. Then select Remove Background.

Once you click Remove Background, the extracted object from the image will be saved as a PNG file in the same directory.

Long press on images

Open the image in Safari or another supported application. In Safari, you can be in an article with multiple photos, on a search results page with multiple photos, view a website version of an image, view the actual image file, and so on—you can pretty much cut the topic out of a photo wherever it appears image.

Tap and hold on the image you want to extract an image from to open its quick action menu. From the menu, click “Copy Theme”to copy the new PNG file for the isolated object to the clipboard. Then go to any app you want and paste it where needed.