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Google Pixel 8's Flagship AI Photo Editing Feature Coming to iPhones

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Google next month will make its latest AI-powered photo editing feature available to all users of Google Photos on iOS, the company has announced.

google-photos-magic-editor.jpg

Magic Editor, which featured heavily in last year's Google Pixel 8 series marketing blitz, uses generative AI to perform complicated photo edits, such as filling in gaps in a photo, repositioning subjects, and additional foreground/background adjustments like making a cloudy, grey sky look blue.

The edits mimic the kind of possibilities afforded by more professional editing tools like Photoshop, except Magic Editor achieves its automated results via AI, rather than the user having to do them manually.

The editing tool debuted as one of the headline AI features on the company's flagship phone when it launched six months ago, and has since been exclusive to Google Pixel 8 owners and Google One subscribers. The tool will become available to all users of Google Photos starting May 15.

Google Photos for iOS and Android will include 10 Magic Editor saves per month. To use more than that, users will need to buy a Premium Google One plan, which starts at 2TB of storage for $10 per month or $100 annually.

In addition to Magic Editor, Google is bringing several more editing tools to Google Photos, including Photo Unblur, Sky suggestions, Color pop, HDR effect for photos and videos, Portrait Blur, Portrait Light (plus its add light/balance light features), Cinematic Photos, Styles in the Collage Editor, and Video Effects.

To use the AI features, Apple devices must be running iOS 15 or later. Google Photos is a free download for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store.

Article Link: Google Pixel 8's Flagship AI Photo Editing Feature Coming to iPhones
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/04/11/google-pixel-magic-editor-coming-to-iphone/
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Interesting to consider Google's thought process here. Given the vastly greater number of iPhones out there, what % of iPhone users do they expect to try this out, and of those, what % will convert to the premium plan. And then how will that revenue stream compare with the potential loss of sales of Google Pixel phones. I suspect that the latter part -- loss of sales of Pixel phones is relatively small as there just isn't that much switching. So why not grab a piece of the larger iOS driven pie. But also, I assume that's why they did NOT offer this on Samsung Galaxy phones (I believe?) -- they probably would be a real risk of Android to Android switching away from Pixels to Galaxies if someone no longer requires the Pixel phone to get these flagship features.

Anyway, all that aside, I'm definitely going to give it a run with the 10 free saves per month. Unless the only way to do that is to give access to my entire photo library.
 
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vegetassj4 said:
Ahhh…Google using my photos to train their AI. Or are they promising not to use my information?
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They promise to not share and tell you they won't share without your explicit consent (the I Agree button to use an app), make billions and than pay a few million via lawsuits in the future if necessary. That's the long term business strategy for growth. (just like most corporations)
 
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Bigkool2inSC said:
Not that i want to make my photos fake but i'd prefer to wait on iOS 18 to bring something similar to be used on the native photos app (like most iphone users)
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This stuff is never coming to iOS 18 as Apple won’t do it.
 
This is amazing for Apple. With the iPhone 20 they can ditch the camera modules

AI together will use GPS, compass and accelerometers to make a photo.

Making the camera useless, therefore able to remove the camera system completely and put a bigger battery , thin out the phone (less material) and of course slap a $500 dollar increase on the already skyhigh prices.

Google is leading and bringing the AI to iOS, same with Gemini.

Lets go! Apple shareholders rejoice!
 
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Have to imagine Apple will implement some version of this with iOS 18 so Google is getting ahead of it and trying to grab some users onto their app beforehand..... I do feel like Apple's implementation will be a lot more basic and less feature rich, as they tend to roll things out carefully and slowly.... Unless they want to make a big statement with AI.
 
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Uhhhhhh no. No thanks.

Apple’s trying to achieve this through AI also on photo apps but their plans is it will rely fully on on-device AI and neural engine, nothing through cloud AI.

(It will likely be two or three years from now though, current neural engine on Apple Silicon, although powerful, still not enough to do super complex AI tasks on device. Their goal is M5 series chip will be first to have super powerful on device capable AI neural engine)!
 
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gadgetfreak98 said:
But also, I assume that's why they did NOT offer this on Samsung Galaxy phones (I believe?) -- they probably would be a real risk of Android to Android switching away from Pixels to Galaxies if someone no longer requires the Pixel phone to get these flagship features.
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The answer is simple. Samsung has been offering most of those features first. With exception of individual features, Samsung has been leading this area for a while, but Google has been better in marketing them:)
No Galaxy owner would switch to Pixel just because of the photo editing features.
 
Rradcircless said:
I raise an eyebrow at the limited uses for free iPhone users, causes me to wonder at the cost to run this AI feature, and the energy it consumes… 🙁
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On Android they can offset the costs with the amount of data they collect. On iOS, less so. It costs a fortune to run generative AI servers, around 50c a query or $1m a day and thats just for ChatGPT.
 
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t0rqx said:
This is amazing for Apple. With the iPhone 20 they can ditch the camera modules

AI together will use GPS, compass and accelerometers to make a photo.

Making the camera useless, therefore able to remove the camera system completely and put a bigger battery , thin out the phone (less material) and of course slap a $500 dollar increase on the already skyhigh prices.

Google is leading and bringing the AI to iOS, same with Gemini.

Lets go! Apple shareholders rejoice!
Click to expand...

That's a great LOL post. Very creatively funny with a hint of "what if" possibility. I proclaim you winner of the internet today.
 
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"The edits mimic the kind of possibilities afforded by more professional editing tools like Photoshop, except Magic Editor achieves its automated results via AI, rather than the user having to do them manually."

What a great selling-point; take the human (soul/empathy) out of the process instead of performing the task intuitively. This type of oversimplification is what drives the creative class bonkers. Why learn a process for yourself (which takes time, intuition and commitment) when the machine can perform the task with marginal results instantly? This sounds ridiculously lazy and short-sighted. What fun is there in being "Professional" when you can be "Artificial"?
 
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