There’s no dearth of image editing tools you can find in the Google Photos app. However, unlike some alternative image editing apps, the Photos app cannot edit specific parts of people’s faces. But that’s about to change imminently.

Looking within version 7.56.0.839465534 of the Google Photos app, Android Authority has managed to activate the dormant “Touch Up” functionality. The site first uncovered the underlying code for the feature back in October and has now enabled it to give us an early preview of how it works.

This feature will appear under Actions, which is accessible from the row of editing options at the bottom of the image editor. Users will be prompted to download the 16MB Touch Up package to get started, which, as the description plainly states, can “Retouch faces.” Following this brief process, users will find a brand-new interface containing these tools:

  • Smooth
  • Under Eyes
  • Irises
  • Teeth
  • Eyebrows
  • Lips

Each of these options offers a slider ranging from 0 to 100 to adjust the effects as required. But this isn’t even the feature’s best attribute.

Seamlessly edit faces in group photos

In addition to giving you granular control over facial characteristics in selfies, Touch Up can also edit the faces in group photos. Up to six faces can be edited in this fashion, as shown in the screenshot below, with the ability to individually edit each face using the new tools. If a group photo contains more than six faces, a toast will notify users that only six are supported.

Touch Up won’t let users manually select the faces they want to edit in an image, which may be a hindrance if the picture has several people in the background. A paid Gemini subscription will likely be required to tap into this feature in Google Photos, though this cannot be confirmed at the moment.

As with leaks of this nature, we don’t yet have a date to mark on our calendars for its rollout in Google Photos. But since Touch Up appears to be functioning as expected, at least based on Android Authority’s early assessment, we’d be surprised if Google Photos didn’t make this official over the next few weeks.

It’s worth remembering that Google’s Camera app already offers Subtle and Smooth face retouching options for Portrait images. This upcoming Touch Up feature will take that a step further by offering advanced editing options directly within the Photos app.

What do you make of this upcoming editing feature in Google Photos?