Be it getting rid of unwanted objects in the background, changing the background color, or swapping the background itself, there will be times when you’ll want to remove the background from an image.
If you’re an iPhone or an iPad user, there are a bunch of apps and online tools out there that can help you do this. While most of these tools generally work well and get the job done, they require you to perform a series of steps, which can be time-consuming, especially when you need to carry out the operation in bulk.
As an alternative, we bring you a better and faster way to remove background from images on your iPhone and iPad. It involves using the Remove Background shortcut in the Shortcuts app and takes just a few seconds.
Follow along as we show you how to use the Remove Background shortcut to remove background from images on your iPhone and iPad.
Table of Contents
Prerequisites:
As a prerequisite to using the Remove Background shortcut, you need your iPhone or iPad to be running iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, respectively. However, since these latest operating systems aren’t officially released to the users yet, if you wish to use this shortcut right now, you’ll need to install the developer betas for these operating systems on your device.
How to Remove Background From Images Using Remove Background Shortcut
If you’ve already installed the iOS 16 or iPadOS 16 on your iPhone or iPad, respectively, here’s how to use the Remove Background shortcut on your device:
- Click on this link to open the Remove Background shortcut page in your default web browser.
- Tap on the Get Shortcut button at the bottom.
- When this prompts you to open the shortcut in the Shortcuts app, click on Open.
- Once you’re redirected to the Shortcuts app, tap the Add Shortcut button to add the shortcut to your shortcuts gallery.
- Minimize the Shortcuts app and open Photos (or the Files app, if you’ve got the image in it).
- Go to the image folder/library and open the picture whose background you want to remove.
- Click on the Share button in the bottom-left (on the iPhone) or at the top (on the iPad).
- Scroll down to see shortcut suggestions in the Share menu and click on the Remove Background shortcut.
As soon as you do this, the Remove Background shortcut will run and remove the background from the image. It will create a new image file—with the removed background—and save it in the Photos app. You can then export this image to any image editor to add a background color or simply add it on top of another image.
Image Background Removal on iPhone and iPad Made Super Easy
If you’ve used Shortcuts before, you’d know that this isn’t the first shortcut that promises to remove background from images on the iPhone or iPad. There have been a few shortcuts in the past that utilized third-party image removal tools to do the same but sadly ran into issues and didn’t work well.
However, what’s different this time around is that the Remove Background shortcut essentially uses the “remove background from” action in the Shortcuts app that comes as part of the change in the Photos app in iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, which makes it so effective and reliable at the task.
We feel the Remove Background (bg remove) shortcut does an excellent job of removing the background from images. It manages to cleanly cut out the subject from the background and leaves you with an image that appears comparable to what some dedicated background removal tools would produce.
Related: MIUI’s Erase Object vs Pixel’s Magic Eraser and Samsung’s Object Eraser
Alternative Ways to Remove Background from Image iPhone/iPad
While we believe the Shortcut method explained above is the easiest and fastest way to remove the background from images on iPhone or iPad, you can consider using online background eraser tools or third-party apps if you wish.
1. Remove bg
As we had mentioned in our article on image background removal on Mac, Remove.bg is an excellent option to quickly remove backgrounds from images on all platforms including iPhones. Just go to the website and open the picture you want to edit. A single click will remove the background with 99% accuracy.
2. Cleanup.Pictures
Cleanup.pictures is by far the best online tool to remove unwanted objects from images. It’s like the magic eraser tool we saw on Google Pixel 6 devices earlier this year. Use this if you want to remove specific objects instead of the whole background from images on iPhones.
FAQs on Removing Background from Images on iPhone
Can you remove a background in Apple photos?
It's possible to remove background in Apple Photos when working with Preview on Mac. But if you are trying to do it on iPhone, you need to make use of the Remove Background shortcut or third-party services like remove.bg.
Can I change the background of a photo on iPhone?
There is no native to change the background of a photo on iPhone but you can use third-party web applications like removebg to remove the background and then use apps like Pixlr to change the background.
How do I change the background on my iPhone for free?
The easiest way to remove the background on iPhone for free is to use remove.bg website. It's a web app that lets you remove background from any image with a single click, and that too for free. There is a size limitation, though.
Yash is a contributing writer at TechPP. He writes how-tos, features, and explainers for multiple verticals across the site. Sometimes, he also reviews the...