Google smartphones as old as the Pixel 6 could soon receive some “exclusive” features from the Pixel 9 range, according to a new report.
Google’s latest Pixel 9 series smartphones launched with new camera features and two exclusive updates to the AI-powered Google Photos Magic Editor function, “Reimagine” and “Auto Frame.”
According to a report from Android Authority, Google is now preparing to make both Reimagine and Auto Frame available on Pixel 6, Pixel 7 and Pixel 8 series smartphones. The features haven’t yet been made available to users, but everything is now in place for Google to be able to flick a switch to activate them.
Evidence for this upgrade was found by app expert Assemble Debug, who discovered references to Reimagine and Auto Frame in a new version of the Google Photos app targeted specifically at these older Pixel devices. According to the tipster, Google maintains three versions of the Google Photos app for Android devices: one for the Pixel 9 series only, another for Pixel devices released since 2021 and another for all other Android devices. This second version of Google Photos for recent Pixel devices now contains code for the new features initially found only in the Pixel 9 version. The code is not present in the “non-Pixel” version of the app, suggesting that Google intends to restrict these features to Pixel phones for now.
However, Google has previously opened Pixel-only features to the broader Android community. Magic Editor launched as a Pixel 8-series exclusive and is now available to all Google Photos users, including iOS. It’s reasonable to assume that the same might eventually happen to Reimagine and Auto Frame. This is possible because much of Magic Editor’s processing happens in the cloud, meaning you don’t need a powerful device to use it.
What Are Reimagine And Auto Frame?
If you haven’t tried Reimagine or Auto Frame yet, here’s what they do.
Reimagine lets you change any elements in your photo by circling it and typing a description of what you want into a box. Magic Editor then uses generative AI to redraw the circled section of your image to match your description. It can be a lot of fun, although the potential for creating misleading images in just a few taps has raised concerns. Reimagine makes it trivially easy to do so.
Auto Frame uses generative AI in a less fun, but arguably more useful, way by automatically cropping, straightening up and realigning an existing photo to better emphasize the subject. Sometimes it will expand the edges of your picture and automatically generate new pixels to fill in the gaps. It’s fully automatic, so you don’t get to control the reframing, but you do get a selection of alternative results to choose from. If you don’t like any of the results you can ask it to try again and generate a new set.
Sometimes you’ll get the option to turn a vertical photo into a horizontal one, or vice versa. It’s a shame Magic Editor doesn’t let you pick the specific format for your images as this would be a genuinely useful feature in my opinion.
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