After three years of reserving its AI-powered photo editing tools for Pixel users and paid Google One subscribers, Google is releasing those tools to a wide range of devices for free. Beginning May 15, anyone who uses Google Photos—and meets a few basic hardware requirements—will be able to utilize Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, and more.
Magic Eraser is undoubtedly the most popular photo editing tool to make the list. Introduced in 2021, this feature removes unwanted elements—like unwitting tourists, overflowing garbage cans, or your photobomb-obsessed uncle—from the background of your photo. To use the tool, you upload your photo, then wait for Magic Eraser to highlight people and items in the background. Once you select which elements you want vanished, Magic Eraser uses AI to fill in the gap left behind, creating the illusion of a seamless backdrop.
Photo Unblur meanwhile allows you to adjust the focus of your photo, saving an otherwise perfect shot from ending up in your trash folder. While Google hasn't gone into great detail about the processes behind this tool, it appears that AI helps Photo Unblur identify unfocused photographic elements, then attempts to fill in the missing data required to sharpen your image. This is another feature Pixel users have been fairly pleased with, whether it's because they're retouching old family photos or fixing concert snapshots taken with another device.
Portrait Light, Magic Editor, and a few other tools will also become available to most Google Photos users on May 15. Pixel tablets, Chromebook Plus units, Android smartphones not made by Google, and iPhones are among the devices newly eligible for Google's AI-powered photo editing suite. Google says Chromebook Plus users must be using ChromeOS version 118+, while smartphone users with Android 8.0 and iOS 15 (or higher) must have at least 3 GB RAM.
Google is a for-profit organization, though, and that means certain incentives still exist to buy into the Google hardware ecosystem. While Google Photos users on Android and iOS will get 10 Magic Editor saves per month, you can surpass this limit by buying a Pixel device or paying for a premium-level Google One plan, which costs $10 per month.
