Magical photo background removal apps you should try

Whether you need to remove a photo background for a creative project, create a fun sticker, or just isolate a subject, there are some great mobile apps that let you quickly remove the background from your images.

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Table of Contents

• 1. iPhone Sticker Maker (Free, iOS only)
• 2. Canva (Pro & Free)
• 3. Hypic (Free)
• 4. Adobe Express (Premium)
• 5. SnapSeed (Free)
• 6. Adobe Photoshop Express (Freemium)
• 7. PicsArt (Premium)

1. iPhone Sticker Maker (Free, iOS only)

If you're an iPhone user, you probably already know this trick. iPhone Sticker Maker lets you isolate the subject of a photo with just a tap and hold. It's free and native to any iPhone running iOS 17 or later.

To separate your subject from the background, go to your Photos library and find an image with a clear subject. Photos with too much going on in the foreground or around the subject may not work well. Hold the subject of the image until a white glow appears around its edges. You can then choose to Copy or Share the separated subject.

You can paste your subject as a sticker in the Notes app, turn it into an emoji in a messaging or social media app, or even paste it into a creative project using any photo editing app, like Canva. You can also save your subject as a new photo with a transparent background.

2. Canva (Pro & Free)

While Canva is a free photo editing app, the background removal tool is a Premium feature and is only available to Canva Pro users or anyone with a free trial. Canva Apps also offer background removal features, such as the Background Eraser, Clear Background, and Replace Background apps, which are free to all Canva users.

Canva's background removal tool works the same on mobile as it does on desktop. Once you've uploaded your photo and opened it on canvas, select it and then select Effects from the bottom menu. Pro users will see Background Remover as one of the options—free users won't see it—but selecting it will pull up a tweaking page to tighten your selection and remove the background.

The Background Eraser app in Canva Apps is a great option if you don't pay for Canva. Select the Apps icon and open Background Eraser. Upload your image and select Remove Background . Once it's loaded, you can add your extracted subject image to your Canva canvas project.

3. Hypic (Free)

The photo editing app Hypic comes from the same developer who created CapCut and TikTok - Bytedance - and it offers in-app integration for CapCut. This allows you to edit a photo or remove the background and send it back to CapCut to add as a video element.

Hypic has a ton of free tools, including background removal or subject cutouts. Just open your photo and scroll to the Cutout section in the bottom menu.

The Cutout options are Auto, Quick select, Manual select, Eraser and Reset. You can change the brush size to select manually or quickly, painting green everything that will be cut out of the background.

The automatic selection is reliable and fast, and you can edit the selection if you need to fix the edges. It's not the best option, but it's fine for most general uses. Tap the check mark to confirm the selection and you'll be rewarded with your subject on a transparent background.

• Get Hypic for iOS | Android (Free, in-app purchases available)

4. Adobe Express (Premium)

Adobe Express has many free tools, but the background removal tool is one of its Premium features. If you subscribe to the Adobe All Apps Creative Cloud plan, you get access to Adobe Express Premium. You can also upgrade to Premium if you are not an Adobe subscriber.

Upload and select your image, and from the tools menu at the bottom, tap Remove background . If you want to remove other parts of the image instead of the background, select Remove object to use one of the Adobe Firefly AI tools in Express.

The background removal feature works very quickly and will isolate your subject on a plain white background. You can use any of the other Express tools or turn your isolated subject into an asset to send to other Adobe software.

To get a transparent background after removing the background of your image, select Background from the bottom menu and set Fill to Off (the swatch with a red line through it). You can save your image as a PNG to keep the transparent background.

• Get Adobe Express for iOS | Android (Free, in-app purchases available)

5. SnapSeed (Free)

Snapseed doesn't have a native background removal tool, and you can't save photos with transparent backgrounds. But there is a way to remove the background of a photo and replace it with a solid color in Snapseed.

Open the photo in Snapseed and go to Tools > Double Exposure .

Your main photo is your first exposure. To remove the background, you need a plain black photo to use as a double exposure. You can take a photo with your camera completely covered or download a black rectangle from a website that has it.

Tap the Add Image icon from the Double Exposure page to add a black image. It applies a translucent, low-contrast effect to the original image. Tap the Blend icon in the middle to display the blend modes and select Subtract or Darken . This applies black to the entire image. Then tap the check mark.

Select Edit at the top, then go to View Edits > Double Exposure > Brush (the icon in the middle). With Double Exposure set to 100 , brush over the areas of the background you want to erase/turn black - there's no super precise way to do this in Snapseed for mobile, but using a stylus can be more precise on a tablet. Tap the check mark to apply, and the background will be erased and replaced with black.

This isn't the most optimal way to remove a background, but it works for some effects and you can further edit the image in Snapseed.

6. Adobe Photoshop Express (Freemium)

While Adobe Photoshop Express is one of Adobe's free creative apps, it does have a Premium upgrade option. You can remove the background from a photo for free, but free users will only be able to export photos with a watermark. Premium users can export without a watermark.

Upload your photo, then tap Background > Remove . Once removed, you can add a solid color or new image to the background, or choose to keep it transparent. To fix the edges of your selection, tap Refine Selection and use Add or Remove on the Smartcut or Brush tool to refine the area for more precise results.

7. PicsArt (Premium)

Picsart has both a Cutout and a Remove BG option. The Cutout option lets you swipe over the subject in your photo to remove everything else, leaving a transparent background. On a phone, it's difficult to precisely swipe that area, but on a computer or tablet - using a stylus - it's easier to do. Cutout is a Pro feature, so to save your photo, you'll need to subscribe or use the free trial.

The Remove BG tool instantly removes the background of your photo once you select the tool icon. You can keep the background transparent, apply a solid color, or even use any AI-generated background before saving your photo. The Remove BG tool is exclusive to Picsart Pro users - and you can't take a screenshot of the results without subscribing.

Removing the background from an image – especially to create a transparent background – is an elusive task to find free tools for. iPhone users have this feature built into their phones. Overall, Hypic is the best app for removing the background from an image without any cost or subscription. Overall, the app is also a great photo editing tool. You can save your separated subject image and use it in a variety of ways.

In addition, if you want to remove the background on your computer, you can use Adobe Photoshop or remove the background online with FotoFlexer .

Good luck!