Google Photos Gives New AI Photo Editor To All—And It's A Genius Move

Forbes

11-06-2025

Google is about to serve up a brand-new AI-powered photo editor that's for everyone, not just Pixel owners. The new Google Photos editor, rolling out soon, comes with a radically redesigned interface, automatically suggests edits for you and can apply them with just one tap
The new editor was first revealed at the end of last month as part of Google Photos' 10th anniversary. However, Google has today given us a better look at what it can do, as part of the recent June 2025 Pixel Drop, which adds 15 new or updated features to the Pixel range. However, the latest Google Photos editor isn't just for Pixels — it's also coming to other Android devices and iOS.
Google's brand new interface design brings the most obvious change to the editor: As shown in the image above, the new editor (right) shows a larger version of the picture you're editing, with graphical tiles below. These are labeled Enhance, Dynamic and AI Enhance.
The Auto Frame feature is available directly via a button located near the top of the screen, along with crop, flip, and rotate options, all accessible without needing to delve into menus or swipe through carousels of options.
However, the most powerful additions emerge when you start editing your picture. You can simply tap, circle, or brush your finger over the part of the picture you want to edit, and Google Photos will suggest the most appropriate edits based on your selection.
In Google's demonstration, for example, tapping on a person in the image automatically selects both featured people before surfacing a contextual menu of editing options with the most likely desired tool placed at the top. These include Focus, Add light, Sharpen, and generative tools like Move and Reimagine. Tapping on Focus then automatically blurs the background to make the subject stand out.
A second example illustrates how tapping on a distant person, incidentally captured in the background, triggers a similar selection of tools; however, this time, Erase, Move, and Reimagine are the suggested edits. Tapping on erase then removes the distracting person from the image, filling in the background automatically.
Google's new photo editor brings what were once exclusive Pixel features to a much broader audience and also stands in direct competition to the iPhone's Apple Intelligence features and Samsung's Galaxy AI. Google's cloud-first AI functions can run on older and less powerful hardware, dating back to Android 8, not just modern flagships. However, it does note that features and results may vary by device and region. Some AI-powered features also require users to be at least 18 years old.
Apple, Samsung and Google all use new AI functions as a way to sell you an expensive new phone, but with billions of active users, Google Photos can afford to take a different approach. Google Photos is a significant funnel for paid Google One subscriptions and a substantial source of potential training data that the company can use to improve its AI models.
By giving away its best photo software, Google is counting on hooking users into trusting the company with a lifetime of memories, transferring brand loyalty away from the particular device in their hands and toward Google Photos.
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