Google Photo’s amazing AI Magic Editor tool may soon be free for everyone
Google’s Magic Editor AI photo editing tool has made terrible phone snaps a thing of the past – at least for those who access it via Google One or a Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro – by letting you change the sky, move your subject and Easily remove unwanted elements from your photo. And it looks like it’s about to become much more widely available.
That’s because there are currently unused lines of code in the latest Google Photos app files – spotted by Android Authority – suggest that a free version of Magic Editor will soon be available to all Google Photos users. Unfortunately there is a catch; unless you pay for Google One, you can only edit a handful of snaps per month.
Evidence of this change are several code strings mentioning a “measured” version of Magic Editor. One specific line of code contains the message: “You can save %s edited photos every month or subscribe to a Google One Premium plan for unlimited saving.”
If that’s not a sign that a free version of Magic Editor may be on the way, we’re not sure what is.
Is there a Google I/O announcement coming?
As with all such leaks, it’s worth taking the information with a grain of salt. While the code is strong evidence that Google is working on some sort of free version of its Magic Editor tool, there’s no guarantee it will appear in the near future or even at all.
To know for sure we will have to wait for an official announcement. If we’re lucky, we might get to see one at Google I/O 2024 – the annual software-focused event – when the keynote takes place on May 14.
In addition to potential Google Photos news, I/O should also treat us to updates on Google’s other AI efforts, such as Gemini – the generative AI – and the more mysterious open-source version Gemma.
Android 15 is expected to arrive as well, and we might even see a new Google Pixel 8a – although some aspects of the Pixel 8a’s leaked design have us concerned (thick bezels may be making an unwanted comeback).