We’ve all seen the Google Pixel ad where Giannis Antetokounmpo removes a “glizzy” from his selfie with Simu Liu just by circling the unwanted photobomber with his finger. Now even iPhone users will be able to use the feature to clean up their photos—as long as they pay for Google One.
As part of the latest benefits to its storage plan, Google has added “Extra Google Photos editing features,” including Portrait Light, Portrait Blur, and Magic Eraser. The features are rolling out to all subscribers beginning this week and may not be available on your phone yet.
To try out the new features, open Google Photos, then select a photo. Tap the edit button that looks like a series of sliders. If Magic Eraser is available, it will appear under the Suggestions tab with a small “1” icon to let you know it’s a Google One exclusive feature. Tap it, then select the portion of the photo that you want to remove, and it’ll be gone. The changes will save as a new photo in the Google Photos app and will need to be manually added to your Apple Photos app if you want a copy there.
Google One plans start at $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year for 100GB of storage. Google also says there will be a free trial beginning in March so people will be able to test out the service before subscribing.
Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He's still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.