Modern smartphone cameras use AI constantly — not just for portraits but for fixing blurry photos, erasing unwanted objects, improving night shots, and enhancing zoom. Most of these tools are already on your phone and take under a minute to use. You do not need any photo-editing experience.
The camera on your phone is doing a lot more than you probably realize. Before the photo even saves, AI has already cleaned up the noise, adjusted the exposure, and applied portrait blurring if you were shooting a person. And after the photo saves, there are more tools waiting in your Photos app that most people never discover. This guide walks through the most useful ones — on both iPhone and Android.
Step 1: Find Your AI Photo Editing Tools
Open Photos and tap Edit on any photo
On iPhone, open a photo in the Photos app, then tap Edit in the top right. You will see a row of icons — look for the small sparkle or wand icon, which indicates AI-powered tools. On Pixel, open Google Photos, select a photo, tap Edit, and look for the Tools section at the bottom. On Samsung Gallery, open a photo and tap the pencil icon, then tap the AI wand.
Remove unwanted objects with the eraser tool
All three platforms have a tool for removing people, objects, or distractions from photos.
- iPhone (Clean Up): Tap the Clean Up tool (a circle with an X). The phone automatically highlights things it thinks you might want to remove — tap one to erase it. Or circle any object yourself with your finger. The AI fills in the background.
- Pixel (Magic Eraser): In Google Photos, tap Edit → Tools → Magic Eraser. The phone suggests things to remove (strangers, power lines). Tap a suggestion or circle any area yourself.
- Samsung (Object Eraser): Tap Edit → AI tools → Object eraser. Circle or tap any object. Samsung also offers a Generative Edit tool on newer Galaxy models that can fill in and extend backgrounds.
All three preserve the original — you can revert any time before you save.
Fix a blurry photo with Photo Unblur
Slightly blurry photos — from a quick movement or a missed focus — can often be recovered.
- Pixel (Photo Unblur): In Google Photos, tap Edit → Tools → Photo Unblur. The phone detects blur and applies a correction. A slider lets you control how strong the effect is.
- iPhone: Apple Intelligence adds a Sharpen tool for this in iOS 18. It works best on subjects, not backgrounds.
- Samsung: Galaxy AI includes Photo Remaster and Sharpen features under Edit → AI tools.
Improve portraits with AI lighting
Portrait mode is a camera AI tool that blurs the background to make your subject stand out. But the AI goes further — it also adjusts skin tones, smooths lighting, and on newer phones, lets you change the light source after the fact.
- iPhone: Open a Portrait photo, tap Edit, and look for the Lighting Effects slider (the cube icon). You can switch between Natural Light, Studio Light, Contour Light, and more — these are not filters, they are AI-calculated adjustments to how the light appears to fall.
- Pixel: Google's Portrait Mode includes Portrait Blur and Portrait Light. In Google Photos, open a portrait → Edit → Tools → Portrait Light. Drag to adjust where the light appears to come from.
- Samsung: Remaster Portrait under Galaxy AI tools adjusts face and background separately.
Try AI-enhanced zoom on the camera
When you zoom in on distant subjects, the image usually gets blurry. Google's Zoom Enhance (available on Pixel 8 series and later) applies AI to sharpen a zoomed photo after you take it. You take the shot at whatever zoom you used, then go to Edit → Tools → Zoom Enhance, and the AI sharpens the result.
Samsung's Space Zoom on Galaxy S series phones does a similar thing in real time — the viewfinder stays sharp at high zoom because the phone is processing the image continuously before you even press the shutter.
Use Best Take to pick the best group shot
Taking group photos is frustrating because someone always blinks or looks away. Google Pixel 8 and later have a feature called Best Take: you take a burst of a few photos in quick succession, then go to Edit → Tools → Best Take. The phone analyzes every face in each frame and lets you swap in the best version of each person's face from any of the shots. The result is a composite where everyone looks their best.
Let Night Mode and Action Pan work automatically
You do not need to turn on Night Mode on most phones — the camera detects low light and activates it automatically. It takes several fast exposures and blends them. The AI removes the parts that blurred from movement and stacks the sharp parts, giving you a brighter, cleaner photo without flash.
Action Pan (available on some Pixel models) does the opposite — it intentionally keeps the subject sharp but blurs the background to suggest movement. Good for photos of kids running, bikes, or anything in motion. You will find it as a shooting mode in the camera app.
What to try next
Camera AI is just one slice of what your phone can do with AI built in. For a full rundown of non-camera features — live translation, call screening, writing tools — see Hidden AI Features on Your Smartphone You Did Not Know About. And if you have old printed photos you want to rescue and restore, How to Restore Old Photos with AI covers the tools that work best.
