Phone cameras have gotten so good that I rarely need to do any editing — the built-in image signal processors have gotten so advanced, that things like colors, shadows/highlights, and dynamic range are all handled automatically by advanced computational photography algorithms and the resulting photos are usually quite good.
But there are two edits I still often do, and for years I paid a monthly subscription to make them. Then I found out my Samsung Galaxy does both natively, in the Gallery app, for free — and the results are good enough that I stopped paying. Here’s what it can do, and how well it actually works.
You don’t need Adobe for generative removal
Your Samsung does it natively, and it works surprisingly well
There are many choices when it comes to using powerful photo editing tools that also have AI with generative fill features. A lot of people default to Photoshop, whose Firefly-powered generative fill does the same kind of object removal — but it costs a monthly subscription of $7.99 to do what most Samsung Galaxy phones do for free.
Some might just use Magic Eraser or Magic Editor in Google Photos to do the same thing, but these advanced Google Photos features have certain usage limitations (unless you’re paying for a Google One subscription, which has some annoying limitations now) that you don’t run into if you use Samsung’s built-in editing tools in the Gallery app.
Your best bet is to familiarize yourself with the built-in editing tools on your Samsung Galaxy (assuming you have a Galaxy S22 or newer) at no extra cost. The results after using generative remove are quite good.
The before/afters are impressive
Edits happen in the cloud but are fast
Using the powerful erase tool with AI in Samsung’s gallery app is a lot of fun, and it works well. Even in the above example where I wanted to remove a phone from my hand, the generative AI erase was able to believably recreate my empty hand without the phone. Wow!
Just look for the stars in your gallery to begin
The stars icon gets you into the AI editing mode, where you can select items to be removed or relocated from any photo. I tested this with a variety of scenes, including those with people and various objects — I even challenged it with photos in low light with complicated environments (like a busy, dim dining room with eight people) — and the generative image editing tools didn’t miss a beat!
Samsung’s software is equally good at moving objects around within photos.
Move objects in photos
Circle to select or “color in” the object
Once you enter AI edit mode in the gallery, you are prompted to select an object for manipulation, which you can do by outlining the object with your finger, or by coloring it in. After you start using the AI editing tool, you are then instructed to “Tap or draw around anything you want to move or delete.”
The AI on the device is smart enough to understand what you’re selecting, so that the outline can “snap to” the boundaries of the item.
Then, you’ll see the above two icons (move or erase). If you select erase, it’ll delete the object, then use generative AI to fill color in the background.
If you choose the move icon, you can tap and drag the selected item.
Pick generative delete or move
As you can see, when you use the move tool, you can slide around a person or object. The space left by moving an object will show up as an empty grid, which will fill in once you complete the move and tap the blue Generate button. A few seconds later, Samsung’s AI fills in the blank part and the photo is complete.
A major caveat: editing with AI on a Samsung Galaxy will watermark the photo with “AI generated content” in faint white letters in the bottom left corner. This is an annoying AI safety feature that does not happen if you’re using Photoshop, which doesn’t add a visible watermark.
Requirements
Works all the way back to Galaxy S22
Samsung has been doing a great job updating older hardware with new software. The gallery features mentioned in this article work all the way back to the Galaxy S22 series from 2022, along with the Z Fold4 and Z Flip4 and above, and the Galaxy Tab S8 series and above. These features are tied to One UI 6.1/Android 14 and above, so if your device has recently gotten an update to that version of One UI or higher, you probably have it. As mentioned, these gallery edits are happening in the cloud, so a decent internet connection is required for best results.
A major caveat: editing with AI on a Samsung Galaxy will watermark the photo with “AI generated content” in faint white letters in the bottom left corner.
I should also mention that you might have read that certain Galaxy AI features might be paywalled after 2025. However, Samsung has recently confirmed that the default AI features on Galaxy devices, like the ones mentioned in this article, will stay free.
There’s no need to pay for these features
Gallery on Samsung Galaxy doesn’t do it all, but impresses with AI edits
Obviously, if you have more advanced editing needs, you’re likely to opt to pay for Photoshop (but Adobe is losing its crown as competition heats up). But for everyone else like me that needs to remove or relocate certain objects from photos, the built-in tools Samsung offers in its Galaxy app are more than enough. Plus, you can’t argue with free.