Google is back with its latest set of hardware launches and software announcements at its Made by Google event in NYC. We have already seen the arrival of the freshly-baked Pixel 10 series, Pixel 10 Pro Fold, Pixel Buds 2a, Pixel Watch 4, and the new Gemini assistant for smart speakers.
However, a small but useful feature that might go unnoticed is the upgraded image editing capability in Google Photos: you can just ask the Google Photos app to edit images for you.
The feature builds on top of the redesigned photo editor Google introduced earlier this year, which can offer AI-powered suggestions to combine multiple effects for quick edits. With the new Gemini-powered conversational editing capabilities, Google Photos can take voice commands or text prompts to edit the images in different ways.
You can request specific changes, like removing a particular object from the background or restoring an old photo. The app can take multiple requests in a single command. For instance, you can ask Google Photos to fix washed-out colors and remove reflections at the same time.
"Because this is an open-ended, conversational experience, you don’t have to indicate which tools you want to use," Google explained in a blog post. You can also use one of the provided suggestions or simply say "make it better" to get the ball rolling if you don"t have anything specific in mind.
Not just corrective edits, the feature lets you change the image background or add objects like sunglasses or party hats simply using voice commands. The feature is arriving first on Pixel 10 devices for users living in the US.
Apart from that, Google is baking support for C2PA Content Credentials into the Pixel Camera app. Pixel 10 will be the first to implement this industry-standard that aims to improve transparency around how images are created.
C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity) is responsible for developing the Content Credentials technical specification. In the age of deepfakes, voice cloning, and synthetic media, these credentials act like a digital nutrition label that can be used to verify the origin and history of digital content and whether edits were made.
C2PA Content Credentials will also make their way to the Google Photos app, which already supports IPTC metadata for AI-edited images and SynthID for images edited with Reimagine. Again, Pixel 10 devices will be the first to support it, followed by Android and iOS devices in the following weeks.