If you enjoy using a good jolt of AI to spruce up your photos, turn to Google Photos. The AI tools built into the app are now available for all Android and iOS users for free.
Initially, the AI tools were limited to Pixel phones and then required a Google One subscription. In a blog post published on Tuesday, however, Google staff writer Molly McHugh-Johnson revealed that all the tools are now on the house for everyone, as previously promised.
Google Photos is often included with Android, but you can download it from the Google Play Store if you don't have it already. If you have an iPhone, you can download the app for free from Apple's App Store.
Also: You can now easily move your photos from Google Photos to iCloud Photos. Here's how
Google Photos includes a number of AI-powered tools designed to help you refine your photos and edit or eliminate unwanted elements. At the top of the list is Magic Eraser, which lets you wipe out any unwanted subjects or objects in an image. Don't want to see that stranger who photobombed your last picture? Just erase them from the scene.
Next up is Magic Editor, a tool that uses AI to let you edit your images. Want to move a certain element in a photo? With Magic Editor, you can place it elsewhere in the image, and the AI will generate a new background to compensate for the absence of the image.
Also in the mix is a Photo Unblur tool, which challenges AI to unblur an image through a sharpening filter based on a previously captured scan of images. You can apply this to any fuzzy or blurry image and see if it sharpens the image more effectively than similar tools in other image editors.
"It's really exciting that so many more people will be able to use these tools," Google Photos senior product manager Selena Shang said in McHugh-Johnson's post. "The expansion was no easy feat. The Google Photos engineering team worked to ensure that these features worked across a wide array of Android and iOS devices so that Google Photos' suite of AI editing tools work well no matter what device you're using."
In the post, Shang also shared a number of tips and tricks for getting the most out of the AI tools in Google Photos.
One piece of advice is to use both the AI tools and traditional tools to refine your photos. As one example, Shang said she applies the Portrait preset within Magic Editor, cleans up other distractions using the same tool, and finally uses the regular editor to tweak the overall tone and brightness of the photo.
Another tip is to learn when to use the Magic Editor's Erase tool versus Magic Eraser. Both can get rid of unwanted elements in an image, though they work in different ways. Noting that "Magic Eraser works best for quick fixes on smaller portions of the photo," Shang said that landscape shots with people or objects in the background are best tweaked using Magic Eraser, but more prominent and complex foreground objects are often better suited for refinement through the Magic Editor's Erase tool.
Also: How to create animated 'Cinematic' photos in Google Photos
Next, the Magic Editor offers three different ways to select an item in your photo — tapping, brushing, and circling. Shang finds that certain methods work best based on the element you want to select. Objects with clear boundaries, such as a water bottle in the foreground, are typically easier to tap. Objects with less distinct edges, such as leaves on a tree, may be easier to select by circling or brushing them.
Finally, remember that you can always fine-tune your photos even after applying an AI-powered tweak. Certain editing tools provide a strength slider to let you vary the intensity of an effect, Shang noted. As one example, Shang said that after applying the Portrait Light to a photo, she'll modify the strength if she wants the effect to be more subtle.
"And that's the whole idea behind Google Photos' AI tools." Shang added. "What your photos look like is up to you — now you just have a bigger (and smarter) toolkit."