As Google Photos marks its 10-year milestone, the tech giant has rolled out a major redesign of the app’s photo editor, with artificial intelligence (AI) playing a central role in the upgrade.
The updated version of the app brings several advanced editing tools that were earlier limited to Google’s premium Pixel devices, including the Magic Editor on the Pixel 9 series. One such feature is Auto Frame, which suggests intelligent cropping options. If the crop results in missing parts of the image, the app uses AI to generate the missing visuals seamlessly.
Another standout feature, now available beyond Pixel phones, is Reimagine. This tool allows users to modify the background of their photos — for example, adding green grass, autumn leaves, or other seasonal elements that weren’t present in the original image. While visually impressive, it also raises questions about the line between real and digitally altered memories. To address this, Google has started adding watermarks to images that have been modified using AI.
A new addition to the editing suite is AI Enhance, which automatically generates three different versions of an image based on common enhancements such as sharpening and object removal. Users can then select the version that suits them best. This new tool is located in the Edit menu, alongside existing features like Enhance and Dynamic.
Sharing photos is also becoming more convenient. Google has introduced a feature that lets users create a QR code for shared albums, making it easier to send or display a link. This could be particularly useful for events or group photo collections.
The redesigned editor will be available on Android smartphones starting in June, with the iOS version set to launch later in the year.
This upgrade reflects Google’s ongoing commitment to making powerful photo editing tools more accessible to a wider audience, blending convenience with creative flexibility all powered by AI.
