Your iPhone Is About to Get One of the Pixel’s Coolest Features

Google Photos just turned 10 years old.

And to celebrate that fact, Google has announced that it is bringing a few AI photo-editing features, which you previously only had access to on Google Photos if you had a Pixel smartphone, to other Android smartphones and the iPhone for the first time.

So if you use Google Photos — which there’s a good chance you do, as it’s still arguably the most popular photo storage solution for Android and iPhone users alike — you’re going to gain access to some pretty neat new features.

New AI photo-editing tools

The AI photo-editing tools that Google is rolling out to more Google Photos users are designed to be quick and easy to use — no professional creative experience required.

“We’re launching a new editor that provides helpful suggestions and puts all our powerful editing tools in one place,” reads Google’s blog post. “You can use AI-powered suggestions that combine multiple effects for quick edits in a variety of tailored options, or you can tap specific parts of an image to get suggested tools for editing that area.”

Google

The two standout AI photo-editing tools are called “Reimagine” and “Auto Frame” — both were first featured on the Pixel 9, which was released last summer.

With Reimagine, you’ll be able to open a photo in Google Photos and, via a text box, you’ll be able to write what you want to change about the background or specific objects in the photo. Once written and submitted, it’ll use generative AI to edit (or “reimagine”) that photo as you described.

In Google’s presentation, the Reimagine tool is used to transform a sidewalk in the background into “piles of freshly fallen leaves” in one photo, while also changing a cloudy sky background into “clear blue skies” in another photo.

With Auto Frame, the photo editor tool uses generative AI to automatically crop, expand, rotate and realign a specific photo. When “expanding” the photo, it essentially fills in the blanks to make it appear as if it were a completely new photo.

In addition to these AI photo-editing tools, Google is updating the interface of Google Photos and introducing a new way of sharing photo albums — you’ll be able to generate a QR code and then share that with people so that they can view or add to a specific photo album.

When’s it coming?

Google is first rolling out these new Google Photos to Android users — it’ll start doing so next month (or June).

As for iPhone users, you’ll have to wait a bit longer. Google hasn’t given an exact date for the rollout, only saying it’ll arrive sometime “later this year.”

For more information about the new features coming to Google Photos, check out Google’s blog post.

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