Samsung’s One UI 5.1 can lift objects from a photo and cut out the background, just like iOS 16

Ben Schoon | Feb 13 2023 - 6:04 pm PT

There are a few new software perks on the Galaxy S23 series, but one that seems like it might be exclusive to the company’s latest smartphone is the ability for Samsung’s software to pull objects out of photos, leaving the background behind.

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Hidden in One UI 5.1 on the Galaxy S23 series is a trick in the Samsung Gallery app that can cut objects out of photos. Sound familiar? It’s the same feature that Apple introduced to iOS with the release of iOS 16.

This feature works quite simply in the Samsung Gallery app. Simply open a photo and long-press on an object. It’s turned on by default and, in our testing so far, it works rather well. Objects can be pulled from the image and the ending cutout is pretty clean. Like on iPhone, the image is shared on a transparent background, and can be copied to the clipboard and pasted in other apps. You can also save the image to your device, or share it directly to other apps.

This also works for videos, but only when the video is paused.

In theory, this should work with all devices with One UI 5.1, which now includes the Galaxy S20, S21, and S22, as well as Samsung’s latest foldables. Yet, it seems the feature only works on Galaxy S23 devices, as some Redditors say, so there’s a good chance it’s an exclusive feature to Samsung’s latest device. If you’ve just updated to One UI 5.1, let us know if the feature is working for you.

Below you can see a sample lifted from the Galaxy S23 Ultra, the original photo, and the same cutout as it was pulled on iOS.