Google's AI Photo Editing Tools Are Expanding To a Lot More Phones

Starting May 15th, almost all Google Photos users will be able to access the AI photo editing features previously limited to Pixel owners and Google One subscribers. All you'll need is a device with at least a 64-bit chip, 4GB of RAM, and either iOS 15 or Android 8.0. The Verge reports: Magic Editor is Google's generative AI photo editing tool, and it debuted as one of the headline AI features on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. Those kinds of features typically remain exclusive to new Pixels for six months after launch, and right on time, Google's bringing it to previous Pixel phones. But it's not stopping there; any Google Photos user with an Android or iOS device that meets the minimum requirements will be able to use it without a Google One subscription -- you'll just be limited to 10 saved edits per month. Pixel owners and paid subscribers, however, will get unlimited use.

Older features like Photo Unblur and Magic Eraser -- which used to be available only to Pixel owners and certain Google One subscribers -- will be free for all Photos users. Google has a full list of these features on its Photos community site, and it includes things like editing portrait mode blur and lighting effects (useful, but not the cutting-edge stuff, for better or worse). Other generative AI features that launched with the Pixel 8 series, like Best Take and Audio Magic Eraser, are remaining exclusive to those newest Pixels, at least for now.

2026 headline, "Google cancels mobile edit tools"

[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

Nothing to see here.

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[Big Hairy Gorilla]

quite funny, yet... I feel like this is the unraveling of the remaining bits of sanity in the world... soon everyone will be editing the fuck out of their photos for the only reason that it's all about them, and tiny details like the additional energy consumption will be never mentioned, drowned out with hype, forgotten as fast as we forgot that crypto currency uses electricity. Put this in the hands of every George Santos, and hey, a lot is possible. So that's the unravelling part.

The downsides of social m

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[AmiMoJo]

I've found the deblurring tool to be useful on occasion. Sometimes I'm in a hurry and don't get the focus quite right.

Stuff like the eraser is great in theory, but in practice you can see that something has been removed. I tried to edit out a shadow I was casting over a field, for example, but it didn't look right on anything except a phone size screen.

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[NoWayNoShapeNoForm]

Imagine if Google created the Universe. Then 2 years later Google decided to cancel it. Does the Universe then implode back into a singularity?

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[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

It's just a call to unlink() which frees up all that space.

Unnatural photos

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Sure, if you want to make all your photos look like hyper-realistic cartoons, go ahead. I can't stand the filtres because I want to capture what people & things really look like instead of some idealised cartoon version of them. I've turned them all off. I just want them to get the physical camera settings right (focus, depth of field, exposure) & I'll decide if I want to ruin them with AI afterwards.

Or maybe I should just buy a proper camera?

As a long-time Pixel owner...

[ElimGarak000]

... I have been able to do what now? Who uses a phone to take pictures, anyway? Isn't that -- and I'm being serious here -- more of an iPhone user kind of thing?