Google Photos is getting an AI upgrade. On Wednesday, the tech giant announced that a handful of enhanced editing features previously limited to Pixel devices and paid subscribers — including the AI-powered Magic Editor — will now make their way to all Google Photos users for free. This extension also includes Google’s Magic Eraser, which removes unwanted objects from photos. Photo Unblur, which uses machine learning to sharpen blurry photos. Portrait Light, which lets you change the light source in photos afterwards, and more.
Editing tools have historically been a selling point for Google’s high-end devices, the Pixel phones, as well as for Google’s subscription cloud storage product, Google One. But as a growing number of AI editing tools flood the market, Google has decided to make its full AI photo editing capabilities available to more people for free.
Image Credits: Google
However, there are some caveats to this extension.
For starters, the tools won’t start rolling out until May 15, and will take weeks to roll out to all Google Photos users.
Additionally, there are certain hardware device requirements to be able to use them. On ChromeOS, for example, the device must be a Chromebook Plus running ChromeOS version 118+ or have at least 3GB of RAM. On mobile, the device must be running Android 8.0 or later or iOS 15 or later.
The company notes that Pixel tablets will now be supported as well.
The Magic Editor is the most notable feature of the group. Introduced last year with the launch of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, this editing tool uses genetic artificial intelligence to make more complex photo edits — like filling in gaps in a photo, repositioning the subject, and other foreground or background edits of a photo. Photo. With Magic Editor, you can change a gray sky to blue, remove people from the background of a photo, restore the subject of the photo while filling in gaps, remove other clutter, and more.
Previously, these types of edits required Magic Eraser and other professional editing tools like Photoshop to achieve the same effect. And those edits would be more manual, not automated through AI.
Image Credits: Google
With the expansion, Magic Editor will come to all Pixel devices, while iOS and Android users (whose phones meet the requirements) will receive 10 Magic Editor savings per month. To go beyond that, they’ll have to buy a Premium Google One package — that’s 2TB of storage and above.
The other tools will be available to all Google Photos users, no Google One subscription required. The full set of features that will become available include Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, Sky suggestions, Color pop, HDR effects for photos and videos, Portrait Blur, Portrait Light (plus the add-light/light-balancing capabilities of the tool), Cinematic Photos, styles in the collage editor and video effects.
Other features like AI-powered Best Take – which merges similar photos to create a single best shot where everyone’s smiling – will continue to be available only on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro.
