Google's Awesome AI Photo Editing Tools Are Headed To Most Android And iPhone Devices

Google is making powerful AI editing tools usually reserved for Pixel phone users available to all Google Photo users. From now on, Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, Portrait Light, and so can be used without a subscription. Even though it's free, there are a couple of small caveats to take note of.

Perhaps realizing that AI photo editing tools are dime a dozen nowadays, some more effective than others, Google intends on drawing and keeping users in the Google Photos ecosystem by opening up all its editing tools to all users for free. Prior to this, you either had to be a Google One subscriber to access most of the tools or have the latest Pixel 8 phones for exclusive ones like Magic Editor.

Some of our favorites like Magic Eraser (which removes unwanted elements or objects in your photos), Portrait Light (that effectively alters the directional lighting of the subjects), and Photo Unblur (as the name suggests, can unblur your fuzzy photos through machine learning) will be part of this upgrade.

Probably the most exciting one would be Magic Editor, though. Launched last year on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, the seemingly space-bending Magic Editor turns complex photo editing into a simple few clicks. Users can quickly reposition objects or alter colors of the sky like a Photoshop boss. However, all Android and iOS users will be limited to 10 Magic Editor saves per month, unless they fork up for a Premium Google One Plan (2TB and above).

A couple of consolations to current Pixel owners—who might feel shafted for Google giving away what was once said to be Pixel and Tensor chipset exclusives—is that they will continue to have unlimited use of Magic Editor without a subscription. Pixel 8 users will also have Best Take all to themselves for now. Best Take uses on-device face detection algorithms to match (and replace) people’s faces across group shots taken in a 10-second timeframe.


The roll out won't be happening right away. Google plans for the process to begin on the weeks after May 15, so please be patient. Google mentions some hardware device requirements to be able to use the tools on your device. For mobile, the device must have Android 8.0 or higher or iOS 15 or higher. On ChromeOS, the device must be a Chromebook Plus with ChromeOS version 118+ or have at least 3GB RAM.