I have a photo on my iPhone where I want to remove a person without using any third-party apps. Is there a way to do this using built-in tools or features? I need this fix for a quick edit and I’m not sure where to start.
Lol, if only Apple’s tools were THAT magical, right? But nope, sorry to burst your bubble—the built-in Photos app can’t just poof a person away like you’re Thanos. At best, you can crop the photo to cut them out entirely, assuming they’re on the edge of the frame and not smack dab in the middle. Just hit “Edit” on the photo, swipe the Crop tool, and adjust until the offending party is gone. Super sophisticated hack, I know.
But let’s say you don’t wanna compromise the photo’s composition (because, ya know, your vibe is too immaculate to crop), then… you might be outta luck without diving into one of those third-party apps that literally live for this kinda thing. Apple’s been upping their game with AI stuff, but nope, no built-in magic wand yet.
And don’t even think about trying to clone ‘em out or blur it within the iPhone tools unless you’ve got infinite patience and wanna channel your inner Picasso using the Markup pen… which will absolutely lead to a mess.
Yeah, unfortunately, without third-party apps, you’re pretty limited on iPhones for something like that. Cropping could work if the person you wanna ‘remove’ isn’t taking up too much space or in the middle of the shot, but byteguru already walked through that. Honestly, their sarcasm hit the nail on the head—Apple isn’t handing us wizard-level photo editing tools yet.
BUT, here’s something they didn’t mention: the Markup tool in Photos might help a little, depending on what you’re working with. If the background behind the person is plain (like a basic wall or sky), you could technically use the Markup pen to sort of draw over them and blend it in… but only if you’re okay with it looking, let’s say, ‘hand-crafted.’ 
And by ‘hand-crafted,’ I mean probably terrible unless you’re a digital-art prodigy.
Really though, this is one of those things where you’d need a proper app because built-in tools just aren’t built for this level of editing. Apple might surprise us someday, but for now, unless you’re planning a career as a manual photo editor with your fingertip, it isn’t happening natively on iPhones.