The First Smartphone With Google’s Artificial Video Generator Is Not a Pixel
Last month, Google announced Veo 2, the company’s latest model for AI-powered video creation. This model is currently capable of generating eight-second videos if you pay for Gemini. If you pay for Google One AI Premium, you’ll also have access to Whisk, an image generator that, with Veo 2, now lets you animate those images too. (Free users are not counted yet.)
I wouldn’t blame you if you assumed that whenever Google inevitably makes Veo 2 free, Pixel users will get it first. After all, it’s sort of Google’s philosophy to release new features for the company’s own line of smartphones first, then roll them out to other devices and platforms. But the company isn’t doing that with Veo 2. The first smartphone users who will be able to try out the video model for free are not Pixel owners, but owners of Honor, a phone that cannot be purchased even in the United States.
Veo 2 on Honor phones
As The Verge reports , anyone who buys an Honor 400 or 400 Pro will be able to access Veo 2 for free through the Gallery app—at least for the first two months. Moreover, unlike Whisk, which only allows you to animate images created with Whisk, Honor users will be able to use Veo 2 to animate images they have taken themselves.
The Verge’s Dominic Preston has access to a compatible Honor phone and demonstrates several examples of the feature in action. The highlight is Preston’s photograph of Feeder musician Grant Nicholas. The image shows Nicholas in the middle of the text playing the guitar. But after Veo 2 processes the image, it generates a short clip that, if you didn’t know any better, you might think was a low-resolution clip of a singer playing a show. (The Verge reports that the clips had to be converted to GIFs to be included in the article, which reduces the quality somewhat.)
Preston praised the feature’s capabilities when presented with clear and simple objects, such as their pet cat. But with more complex images, Veo 2 had problems: for a photo of a vintage car, Veo 2 decided to rotate the car without turning the wheels, which looks rather strange. For a photo of a bunch of tomatoes, Veo 2 decided to animate a hand picking tomatoes, but when it first enters the frame, the hand becomes translucent.
Honor (or perhaps Google) limits the number of generations to 20 outputs per day. The Verge reports that Honor said Google will offer a subscription service for the feature “eventually,” but the company doesn’t have details yet.
Who is this for?
But even if these restrictions weren’t in place, I wonder who exactly would use this feature for any reason other than a “holiday trick.” Sure, new Honor users might like to play around a little with AI-generated videos of their favorite photos, but the results won’t necessarily be useful. Who needs to regularly edit their photos with a random video generator, especially if the feature will eventually require payment?
It’s a little strange that Google is releasing this on non-Pixel phones first, but honestly, I don’t think Pixel users are missing out on much.