How To Remove Background From Subjects In iOS 16

One of Apple’s most advertised features of iOS 16 is the ability to customize the lock screen. Still, another particularly innovative – and incredibly effective – feature that perhaps many would do well to know: Separate the subject from the background ( Visual Look Up in English). 

With this function, similar to Active Text of iOS 15, which allows you to select text from an image, you can crop a subject from any photo, whether from your Photos, a site in Safari, or Files to the system level. Sounds complicated? Not at all, so let’s see how to cut out the photos in iOS 16, remembering that you can install the beta by following our guide. Well aware that it is, in fact, a beta; therefore, installing it on your main iPhone is not recommended.

Select The Subject

As you might guess, the feature relies on advanced machine learning for image analysis, which is why it will only be available on Apple devices that provide some power. The Cupertino house has established the A12 Bionic chip as a minimum requirement, so we will separate the subject from the background on iPhone XS, ‌ iPhone‌ XS Max,  ‌ iPhone‌ XR, and later. Using it is easy, and we assure you that the results are impressive. All in all, it works very similarly to Active Text, but instead of selecting the text, we’re going to choose a subject.

1. Launch the Photos app
2. Select an image from the library containing a subject, preferably well defined
3. Press and hold on the subject for a few moments

Move, Copy Or Share?

Now you can do three things :

1. The subject will rise by holding your finger on it, and you can physically move it to another app.
2. As you lift your finger, you will see a slight glow around it, indicating that the image has been selected. A menu will appear, from which you can choose:
   1. Copy
   2. Share

If you choose to copy the image, it will be copied to the phone’s clipboard, as well as the Mac and iPad, thanks to Universal Clipboard, and you can paste it wherever you want.  If, on the other hand, you choose to click on the Share button, the classic sharing menu will open from the bottom, with the possibility of sharing the content with AirDrop, Messages, Mail, and all compatible apps or copying or saving the image to File (and in other services included in your menu). But let’s see what happens if you keep your finger pressed on the image.

The Real Magic, However, Is To Shift The Image

While holding your finger on the subject of the image, swipe your thumb from the edge upwards without removing your finger from the screen to exit the Photos app and get to Home. At this point, you can move the image wherever you want. It must be an app that accepts images, such as Notes, Messages or messaging apps, Pages, or similar apps. 

The important thing is never to let go of your finger from the screen. For example, we decide to put the subject on a note. With your thumb, you can open the app, or if Note was previously open, you can swipe up from the edge and hold to open recent apps. To explain it in words may seem complicated, but in reality, it is elementary: look at our TikTok at the bottom to better understand how it works.

We Paste The Image On A Note

Now that we have our image on one finger and the recent apps below, we must select the app to paste it on.

1. Keeping your finger pressed, swipe left through recent apps and found the app you are looking for
2. Click on it with your thumb
3. In all this time, your finger over the cutout subject has never left the phone screen
4. Now that you are on the Notes app, drag the cutout matter with your finger and drop it on top
5. The issue will magically be transferred to the new Note

In general, this operation is much more convenient if we first start the app on which we want to paste our image to find it immediately to the left of the photo app when we open the gallery of recent apps.

Why Not Turn Our Subject Into A Sticker?

All this is interesting, but the funniest thing is sharing our photos with others, suitable? Therefore, the new iOS 16 feature can allow us to transform our subjects into stickers for messaging apps. Let’s find out how.

1. We start the messaging app on which we want to paste our image, for example, Telegram
2. Let’s launch the Photos app
3. We select a photo with a defined and distinguishable subject
4. Click on it and hold down on your finger
5. The issue will be cropped, and we can drag it away from the photo
6. With the thumb, we swipe the screen from the edge upwards and hold it down to open recent apps
7. We lift to the left with our thumb and click on the last open app before Photos, which is our messaging app
8. Our index finger is always on the screen, and we can now drag the image to a new message
9. The image will be pasted on top, and we can send the news with a cutout subject, just as if it were a sticker!

The Limit Is The Imagination

As you can imagine, the possibilities of this tool are almost limitless, and it will undoubtedly revolutionize how we interact with images, especially for those who spend a lot of time removing the background from subjects. Not for nothing, the best photo editing software has an automatic feature for this and is now built into iOS.  And you will not be limited only to people. You can also cut out animals and whatever you want. The important thing is that the subjects are well defined and recognizable from the background. So you can fill your friends with cat memes because, as you know, memes are never enough.

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