Google Photos is getting an AI upgrade. On Wednesday, the tech giant announced that a handful of advanced editing features previously limited to Pixel devices and paying subscribers — including the AI-powered Magic Editor — are now available for free to all Google Photos users. This extension also includes Google’s Magic Eraser, which removes unwanted elements from photos; Photo Unblur, which uses machine learning to sharpen blurry photos; Portrait Light, which allows you to change the light source in photos after the fact, and others.
The editing tools have historically been a selling point for Google’s high-end devices, the Pixel phones, as well as a draw for Google’s cloud storage subscription product, Google One. However, as more and more AI-powered editing tools flood the market, Google has decided to make its AI photo editing features available to more people for free.
Photo credit: Google
However, there are some limitations with this extension.
For starters, the tools won’t be rolling out until May 15th and it will be weeks before they’re available to all Google Photos users.
Additionally, there are some hardware device requirements to use it. For example, on ChromeOS, the device must be a Chromebook Plus with ChromeOS version 118+ or have at least 3GB of RAM. On mobile devices, the device must be running Android 8.0 or later or iOS 15 or later.
The company notes that Pixel tablets are now also supported.
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 generative AI to perform more complicated photo edits – like filling gaps in a photo, repositioning the subject, and other edits in the foreground or background of a photo. With Magic Editor you can change a gray sky to blue, remove people from the background of a photo, recenter the photo subject while filling 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 these changes would be more likely to occur manually rather than automated by AI.
Photo credit: Google
With the expansion, Magic Editor will be available on all Pixel devices, while iOS and Android users (whose phones meet the requirements) will receive 10 Magic Editor saves per month. To go beyond that, you’ll need to purchase a premium Google One plan – so 2TB of storage and more.
The other tools are available to all Google Photos users and no Google One subscription is required. The full range of features that will be available include Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, Sky Suggestions, Color Pop, HDR effect for photos and videos, Portrait Blur, Portrait Light (plus the features to add light/light balance in the tool) and Cinematic Photos , styles in collage editor and video effects.
Other features like the AI-powered Best Take feature – which stitches together similar photos to create a single best shot that will have everyone smiling – will continue to be available only on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro.