BACKGROUND REMOVE & REPLACE
Your room stops being part of the video.
No green screen, no lighting rig, no corner of the house you keep tidy in case you have to film. The cutout runs on the device while you record, so you see the finished look in the viewfinder rather than discovering an hour later that it failed. On iPhone two on-device vision models have to agree on every frame, which is why a gesture does not drag the wall along with it.
Zella for Mac is coming to the Mac App Store, and Zella for iPhone is out now on the App Store. One Pro purchase covers both. See the mobile app →
WHAT CHANGES FOR YOU
- 01
No green screen, no lighting rig
The cutout comes from on-device vision models, not from keying a colour. Nothing to hang, nothing to light evenly, and no shadow on the fabric ruining the key halfway through a take.
- 02
You see it before you commit
Removal runs live in the preview while you record, so you know the framing and the edge quality on the take itself, not an hour later when the moment has gone.
- 03
Placed, not pasted
Subject staging adds position, scale, a soft backlight glow and a contact shadow that grounds you on the new scene, and defringe strips the colour halo off the edge so the cutout holds up on a flat background.
ON BOTH PLATFORMS
What it does on each device.
On Mac
Background removal runs on the webcam bubble and on the main video, with 40 built-in scenes (20 still, 20 animated), blur, solid colours, or your own image or video behind you. There is a live preview while you record. With Pro the same cutout exports as ProRes 4444 with a real alpha channel, so it drops onto any layer in any other tool with no rectangle around it.
Get it on iPhone →On iPhone
Background removal runs live on the Neural Engine - while you film and again in the editor, with no green screen. Two on-device vision models must agree on every frame and the cutout edge tightens where you actually move, so gestures don't drag the room with them. Removal lands on a soft bokeh backdrop by default, switchable to cutout, transparent, blur or any of the 40 backdrops.
Everything the mobile app does →
Same project either way. Hand it across as a .zella file and the clips, cuts,
captions, titles, callouts and effects come with it.
Mac and iPhone, side by side →
THE PROOF
The specifics behind the promise.
- AI background removal (RVM) runs fully on-device - no green screen, no cloud, nothing uploaded
- 40 built-in scenes (20 still, 20 animated), plus blur, solid colours, or your own image / video
- Subject staging - position, scale, a soft backlight glow and a contact shadow that grounds you on the new scene
- Works on the webcam bubble and the main video, with a live preview while you record
- Defringe cleans colour halos off the cutout so edges stay crisp on solid backgrounds
WHEN THIS MEETS A PAID CEILING
Background removal, all 40 scenes, subject staging and defringe are free on both platforms. Pro is what lets you export the cutout with a real alpha channel: ProRes 4444 on the Mac, HEVC with alpha on iPhone.
Everything else is free forever: the complete editor, all the AI, unlimited recording, and watermark-free export up to 2 minutes at up to 1080p. 1080p is free permanently, and a free export is never stamped. Pro is $89 once and covers Mac and iPhone on a single purchase, and every new install runs the full Pro set for its first 7 days with no card and nothing to cancel. See pricing →
SEE IT DOING A REAL JOB
Who uses this, and for what.
Product video that does not need a studio.
Shoot the product on a phone, drop the background out, and put it on a clean backdrop or straight onto your page with a transparent background.
Read the workflow → Designers & motionAssets with a real alpha channel.
Export a subject with a transparent background as ProRes 4444 and drop it into any composite, any deck, any site, with no rectangle around it.
Read the workflow → Remote teamsAsync updates that respect everyone's calendar.
Record the update instead of holding the meeting. Captions mean it can be read on a train, and nothing goes through a third-party recorder.
Read the workflow →GO DEEPER
The guide to this feature.
Background removal and replacement
Cutting yourself out without a green screen, and what to do when the edge breaks.
READ THE MANUAL
Every control, documented.
Local. Private. One-time price.
macOS 14 Sonoma+ · iPhone on iOS 18+ · Local-only · No cloud