Google Photos get major AI chops. On Wednesday, Google announced a handful of new features that allow users to become more creative with photo memories, including the option to turn photos into videos and the options to change photos into different styles, such as anime, comics, sketches, and 3D animations.
The app also centralizes access to creative tools, including both AI-powered and traditional tools, in the new Create tab of the Photos app. The two newly launched features will be housed in this tab alongside other tools that allow you to create collages, highlight videos and create more.
Image credit: Google
This update brings AI Provides one of Google's most popular consumer services. Today we have over 1.5 billion users on Google Photos. AI falls into the hands of more people, including those who don't experiment much about what AI can do. Also, when people try out new features, it gives Google a huge foundation to learn.
The company noted that because these features are experimental, it asks users to provide feedback by leaving their thumbs and thumbs in images and videos generated by AI. This feedback will help Google improve its product and overall experience, it says.
Image credit: Google
With new photo-to-video capabilities similar to products already available on Gemini (and as of today), users can create short videos from their own photos using Google's Veo 2 model. Over the past few years, animating old family photos was a clever trick, and people have risked their long-lived relatives to their lives, which has driven downloads of apps like MyHeritage. Now, that ability is being commoditized using AI.
Once you have selected a photo, you can choose from one of two prompts (subtle moves) or “I'm lucky” to turn the photo into a 6-second video clip.
Videos from photos are deployed today to US users of Android and iOS.
Meanwhile, the new remix feature powered by Google's Imagen AI model allows you to select photos from the gallery and convert them to different styles in just a few seconds.
This feature will be available in the US on Android and iOS in the coming weeks.
Image credit: Google
Both features include an Invisible SynthID digital watermark in the output, identifying AI as being generated. Google Photos already does this with other AI tools, such as images edited using Reimagine. The generated video also contains a similar visual watermark to the video generated by Gemini.
Tab will arrive in the US in August. Google says it will update tabs over time, add new tools and experiments, and improve existing options.
The AI feature was introduced along with a similar tool for YouTube shorts. It now offers unique AI effects and new AI effects with VEO 2.