All New AI Features Are Coming to Google Photos Soon.
Most of our apps today continue to receive AI-powered updates, whether we like it or not. This isn’t surprising for a company like Google, which is currently one of the leaders in AI. If you use Chrome, Android, or Google Workspace, you’ve likely encountered Gemini in some way.
As expected, this trend continues to this day. On Tuesday, Google announced a number of new AI-powered features coming to Google Photos for iOS and Android users. Google hasn’t yet announced a release date for these new features, but it looks like they’ll be coming soon. They’re mostly optional—you can continue to use Photos as an image library and opt out of the AI features if you prefer. But if you’re interested, especially in AI-powered image editing , here’s what you can expect:
Nano Banana
Nano Banana is Google’s current “big thing” in AI-powered image processing. This model allows for more flexible image creation and editing than previous models. Specifically, it allows for multiple edits of the same photo, all while maintaining consistency across edits. You can ask Nano Banana to change hairstyles, outfits, landscapes, image styles, add or remove elements, layer edits, and even combine different attributes across multiple photos. If Google is to take its word for it, this is truly significant.
Google is now making Nano Banana available in the Google Photos editor. You’ll find this tool under the new “Help me edit” button when you open a photo in the app. Here, you can ask the app to make any necessary changes. Google suggests, for example, turning yourself into a monarch on a deck of cards, turning a photo into a mosaic, or adding a winter theme to an image to create a family holiday card.
We’ll have to see if the Nano Banana editor in Google Photos can match the tool you used in Gemini. But now the option is there, if you decide to take advantage of it.
Personalized edits
What is a photograph? It seems like a simple question to answer: you point your camera at something, take a photo, and bam, a photograph is born. But companies like Google are changing the way we take and edit photos, making the question less straightforward. If you alter the image itself so much that much of the original data disappears, is it really a photograph? Does it truly reflect reality? I’m not so sure.
That’s exactly how I feel about Google’s new “personalized edits” for Google Photos. The company claims the new “Help me edit” tool can fix “minor imperfections” like blinking or sad faces. For example, if your child took a photo with their eyes closed, you can ask “Help me edit” to open their eyes. Google Photos then pulls data from other photos of your child to create a version of the photo with their eyes open. Again, I ask you: what is a photo?
Google has already used this technology: for example, Best Take can take a series of photos simultaneously and then use the best version of each subject’s face to create a “best shot.” It’s clever, but also odd, especially when the data is taken not from another version of the same scene, but from different images of the same person from the past.
Google Photos for iPhone is catching up with Android
Google is also introducing new features previously available only on Android to iPhone users through the Google Photos app. First, the iOS app now supports “Request Edits”—a feature that allows you to request edits from Google’s AI via text or voice. Both apps now use Nano Banana, but this natural language editing system was previously only supported in the Android app.
iPhone users will also appreciate the updated photo editor. It’s similar to the one Google announced for Android users in May . The new editor features editing recommendations (powered by AI, of course), allowing you to apply multiple effects to your photos at once. You can also tap on an area of a photo to get recommendations for editing tools.
Ask about your photos
I feel like I’ve been saying “ask” too much in this article, but that’s precisely the point of Google’s new features. Specifically, the latest new feature Google announced for the Photos app is the ability to ask about the images themselves. You can ask about the image’s content, request similar images in your library, or, if you prefer, request an edit. It looks like Nano Banana will be haunting you in several places in this update.
Again, none of these new AI features are required if you want to continue using Google Photos without AI. You can still edit images yourself, you just need to avoid the “Help me edit” button. You can also manually view photo metadata instead of using the “Ask” button. But it looks like Google will be banking on these AI features for the foreseeable future.