Big changes are brewing for Google’s media app that photos and videos call home, and they’re starting to show.
The media app I’m talking about, of course, is Google Photos, and it looks primed to receive several new tools and interface improvements to give you a more intuitive and feature-rich experience. These include a streamlined way to find photos of the people you care about, paired with a new section that only houses tools that help your creativity flow.
None of these features are live yet, though code strings found within Google Photos v7.38 (via Android Authority) suggest that they could soon be. Starting off, the tech giant is looking to introduce a new way to highlight recognized faces, making it easier for users to find all relevant images of that specific individual without having to type out their name
Normally tucked behind Collections, Google Photos will soon start highlighting a row of recognized faces in the Search screen, which is truly a much more intuitive placement for quickly accessing photos of a loved one.
Old (left), new (center and right)
The upcoming row will appear right at the top of the search interface, with the search bar repositioning itself at the bottom. The row itself will only highlight faces that frequently appear in your photo library, with the complete People and pets section accessible via an accompanying three-dot button, as seen in the image above.
Elsewhere, Google is looking to add a new tab right between Search and Collections‘ bottom bar placement. Currently known as the ‘Create‘ tab, this section will reportedly only highlight tools to help you edit and transform photos and videos saved in your gallery — essentially bringing all of the app’s creative tools under one roof.
A leaked video of the upcoming tab highlights that it will offer easy access to existing Google Photos tools like Collage, Highlight video, Cinematic photo, and Animation, but it also showcases two new solid additions that hint at exciting creative possibilities.
Google Photos could borrow this GenAI feature from Gemini
There’s photo-to-video, which might suggest that Google is looking to bring its Veo3 capabilities to Google Photos, and Remix, which will let users transform their “photos into styles like sketch, anime, and more.” Both new features will use generative AI and will come with daily limits.
For reference, Gemini gained the ability to bring your still images to life earlier this month, and the functionality is locked behind the tech giant’s $20/mo AI Pro subscription. Whether Google Photos’ upcoming GenAI features will require a similar paid subscription remains to be seen.
