How to use the Pixel 6’s Magic Eraser on older Pixel phones

One of the biggest reasons why Google wants you to consider the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro is because the camera system has been completely overhauled. But just as we suspected would be the case, Google has also worked some of its magic in the software department with features like Magic Eraser. Essentially, you can snap a picture and then use the eraser to remove unwanted objects or subjects from the picture.

Unfortunately, this is a feature that is limited to the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, as it makes use of the Google Tensor chip in order to work its software magic. Well, at least we thought that it was going to be limited to the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. That was, until a modified APK file appeared in the Google News Telegram Group (via Mishaal Rahman) that can be installed on other Android phones. Once installed, it tricks the Photos app on your phone into thinking that you’re actually using a Pixel 6 or 6 Pro.

So how exactly can you get this to work? You’ll first need to install two things, listed as follows:

• Modified Google Photos APK (v. 5.64)
• APKMirror Installer

Once those are both downloaded, use the APKMirror Installer app to open the modified Google Photos APK. It will take a few moments, and you’ll have to grant permission for the Installer to actually have the ability to install files to your device. After that’s finished, you can fire up Google Photos.

Find a picture or image that you want to try and use the Magic Eraser feature on, then tap the Edit button. Swipe to the left until you see Tools. From there, tap the Magic eraser button and watch as your phone attempts to identify objects that could be removed from your image.

Then, you can either tap the Erase all button to remove all of the suggestions, or tap the highlighted suggestions one-by-one until you are satisfied. You can even manually select objects by just dragging your finger across the objects (or subjects) that you want to be removed. However, when manually removing objects, it’s done instantaneously versus allowing you to review the image before removing the object. After you’ve finished removing everything you want, tap the Done button in the bottom right corner.

We tried this on both the Pixel 5 and OnePlus 9 running Android 12 and Android 11, respectively, but it doesn’t appear to work on our OnePlus 9. However, we have seen other users on Twitter manage to get this working on unnamed Android devices using the same modified APK file. Your mileage may vary, and if you want to install this yourself, you can do so at your own risk. We expect Google to issue a patch update via the server in the near future, but for the meantime, you can give this a spin.