Google Photos is getting new AI-powered editing features on Android

You’ll get the most out of this app with a Pixel 5, for the next few months at least.

What you need to know

• Alongside the Pixel 5 and 4a 5G, Google announced new changes coming to Google Photos.
• The app is getting a more powerful and granular manual editor. It’s also getting access to machine learning-powered edit suggestions.
• These updates are rolling out to Android phones today.

It seems like just yesterday when Google just launched a Photos redesign alongside a new logo, today it is making a more substantive edit to the Photos app. Google is updating the image editor with new features to coincide with the launch of its new camera-centric phones. These will run the gamut from automated machine-learning aided features to manual features that place more control in your hands. The new app was leaked earlier in the year, but it’s finally being made official.

The first new feature are automatic edit suggestions from Google. The app will highlight actions it thinks will make your photo look better. you can accept these suggestions or ignore them for something more manual, but they’ll always be available. Google says that more suggestions will come first to Pixel devices over the next few months, probably scheduled around the quarterly feature drops.

Google is also doing a better job of highlighting the granular editing options that exist in the Photos app. While they were previously hidden under drop-down menus, now they’re all accessible within one-tap.

Finally, Google is launching an apple-esque portrait lighting feature. With this new editing tool, you’ll be able to edit the lighting in portrait photos after the fact —even for older photos captured before the app. It’s all done by AI and machine-learning, like most of Google’s other editing features. This will be available first on the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5. It could come to older Pixels later, but Google didn’t say at time of writing.

The new Photos app is rolling out to the Play Store from today.

Pixel 5

$699 at Amazon
$699 at Best Buy
$699 at B&H

Google’s new premier camera phone will launch with some photo-editing exclusives as well, it seems. It’s also one of the first Pixels with an ultra-wide camera, making it a better option for capturing landscapes.