2026-09-22
What iPhone's Lift Subject, macOS's Copy Subject, and Google Photos' Magic Editor actually require — and where each one stops
If you own an iPhone from the last several years, a Mac from the last few years, a recent Windows 11 laptop, or an Android phone with Google Photos installed, there's a real chance you already have a built-in way to cut a subject out of a photo — before you ever open a separate tool. Apple's own support guide documents lifting a subject from the photo background on iPhone; Google's Magic Editor can isolate and move a subject, per TechCrunch's coverage of its 2023 launch. None of that is a secret, and it isn't a story NearBG gets to take credit for. What it does mean is that "does my phone already do this" usually isn't the real question any more — "can I actually reach it, on this device, on this photo, for free, right now" is. Here's exactly what each built-in tool requires, sourced one at a time, and what's left over once you can't clear one of those requirements.
iPhone's Lift Subject: gated by a chip generation, not a subscription
Apple's guide is simple to follow — touch and hold the subject in Photos, or use the share sheet's Add Sticker, and iOS lifts it away as its own image. What that page alone doesn't spell out is which iPhones can do it at all; that detail comes from device-compatibility reporting from the iOS 16 launch. Macworld's own rundown states it plainly: "this is only available on iPhones with an A12 Bionic or better processor, which means you'll need an iPhone XS, XR or later (or an iPhone SE from 2020 or 2022)." 9to5Mac's own device list for the same release names the identical cutoff. The A12 Bionic first shipped in 2018 — so an iPhone 8 or older, still a daily driver for plenty of people, simply doesn't have the option, no matter what iOS version is installed.
Mac has the same trick, under a different name
macOS got its own version starting with Ventura (macOS 13), reported under the name Copy Subject rather than Lift Subject. Control-click a photo in Quick Look, Preview, Photos, or even an image inside Safari, and Copy Subject puts just the isolated subject on the clipboard, per how-to coverage from MacMost and OWC's own walkthrough of the Ventura release. Same underlying idea as the iPhone feature, same on-device machine-learning approach, different menu, and the same kind of gate — it needs Ventura or newer, which rules out plenty of Macs still running an older macOS release.
Windows caught up too — Photos got its own removal tool
Windows didn't sit this one out. Microsoft's own Windows Insider Blog announced background remove-and-replace inside the Photos app in November 2023, letting a user strip a photo's background or swap it for a solid color in one click. It's still there — a February 2026 rundown of Windows 11's AI features from Windows Latest lists AI-powered background removal among the tools Photos ships with today, not something Microsoft has quietly pulled.
Android's version comes with two catches
Google's version launched as Magic Editor on the Pixel 8 in 2023, per TechCrunch's coverage above, and later expanded to more Android phones (including non-Pixel devices) and to iOS. On paper it looks the most capable of the four — it doesn't just isolate the subject, it can reposition it inside the frame and generate new pixels to fill the gap. Two details separate it from the other three, though. First: it runs in the cloud, not on the device — a shift from the smaller on-device models Google Photos used to ship, and one independent writeup describes as directly testable: turn on airplane mode, and Magic Editor stops working. Second, it's rationed. When Google made Magic Editor free for everyone in 2024, 9to5Google's coverage quoted the exact limit — "all Google Photos users on Android and iOS will get 10 Magic Editor saves per month" — and unlimited use needs either a Pixel phone or a Google One Premium subscription at the 2TB tier or above; the smaller, far more common 100GB and 200GB plans don't clear that bar.
Side by side, sourced
| Built-in tool | What it needs | Free monthly limit | Needs the internet? |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone Lift Subject | iOS 16+ on an A12 Bionic-or-newer iPhone (2018's XS/XR or later) | None reported in Apple's own guide | Not stated as a requirement |
| Mac Copy Subject | macOS Ventura (13) or later | None reported | Not stated as a requirement |
| Windows Photos removal | Windows 11's Photos app (added Nov 2023, still listed in 2026) | None reported | Not specified either way in Microsoft's materials — unconfirmed |
| Google Photos Magic Editor | Android 8+ or iOS 15+, 3GB+ RAM | 10 saves/month free; unlimited needs a Pixel or Google One 2TB+ | Yes — reported to stop working in airplane mode |
| NearBG | Any modern desktop or mobile browser | No limit — nothing to meter on a server | Only to load the page once; the model then runs locally |
What NearBG does and doesn't do here
- No device-generation gate. A laptop from a decade ago, running whatever current browser it can install, reaches NearBG the same way a brand-new one does — there's no A12 Bionic-or-newer, no Ventura-or-newer, no specific Windows or Android version to clear first.
- No cloud round-trip, so no monthly count to run out of. NearBG's model runs in the browser via WebAssembly, the same on-device pipeline documented in this blog's first post — there's no server call per image to meter, and no internet outage that can break a cutout that's already started.
- Still exactly one job. NearBG doesn't reposition a subject, generate new background pixels, or composite anything into a scene the way Magic Editor can — it isolates the subject and stops, with a manual touch-up brush for the edges. That's a real scope limit, not an oversight.
- Not a claim that the native tools are worse. If you're already inside iPhone's Photos app and want a quick sticker for a text message, Lift Subject is faster — it's already open. NearBG's case is the photo that's already on a different device, an older device, or one you need back as a plain file instead of a share-sheet sticker.
Honest summary
Every major platform has shipped some version of "cut the subject out of this photo" by now — that part isn't NearBG's story to take credit for. What's sourced above is where each version's own requirement actually sits: a chip from 2018 or newer for iPhone, an OS release from 2022 or newer for Mac, an app most Windows 11 users already have but a hardware requirement Microsoft hasn't clearly documented either way, and — for the one platform reporting confirms needs it — an internet connection plus a ten-edit monthly ceiling unless a Pixel or a 2TB-or-larger Google One plan is already in the picture, on Android. None of that makes those tools worse at what they do inside their own apps. It does mean that if a photo, and a browser, are the only two things on hand right now, that's still enough to get a plain transparent cutout back — no chip check, no version check, no monthly count.