Google is adding some of its sophisticated and unique Pixel editing features to Google Photos today for all Android users to enjoy, but there’s a catch – if you don’t have a Pixel, you’ll have to be a paying Google One subscriber using you.
The editing features with paid access have been rumors for some time, but today marks the official announcement of the new program. Specifically, Google is offering some of its latest machine learning editing tools, such as the enhanced features of Portrait Blur, Portrait Light and Color Pop that it started offering alongside Pixel 5 last fall to a wider audience.
As Google clarified for The Verge when paid access was first discovered, the company did not withdraw existing versions of features like Portrait Blur or Color Pop from free Google Photo users. The current iteration of these features – which work with newer photos that offer depth data, like a portrait photo – will still work for everyone.
But the new subscription-only version and Pixel promises to take it a step further and allows users to apply these effects (through the power of machine learning) to older photos that lack existing depth data. Pixel users will still have access to the features for free, regardless of whether they are Google One subscribers or not.
Along with the new editing features, Google is also offering new AI-powered filters: a new “dynamic” option that automatically enhances brightness and contrast and “sky hints” that can adjust horizons for more dramatic effects.
Google One subscriptions start at $ 1.99 a month and focus primarily on expanding storage for Google services (the basic plan, for example, offers 100 GB of space over the included 15 GB of free storage). Google also offers additional benefits to subscribers to help smooth the business, such as rewards from the Google Store – new Google Photos editing features are likely to be part of that plan.
It’s also worth noting that Google is expanding photo-focused offerings with Google One a few months before ending its free and unlimited Google Photos storage program – meaning that the company is likely to be promoting Google One as a solution for users who need more storage space for their photos as well.
Finally, Google announced that it will feature some feature parity between the iOS and Android versions of the application. The Android version is set to get the enhanced video editor that Google already offers for iOS in the coming weeks, and the iOS version will be updated to receive the new photo editor that Google launched last fall in the coming months.