Google Photos 10 Year Anniversary Updates Bring Redesigned Editor, QR Code for Easy Album Sharing

Google introduced Photos as a media manager for Android devices 10 years ago. To commemorate its 10th anniversary, two new features for Photos have been announced. Google has redesigned the app's Magic Editor and it now features details about the photo such as date, time, and location at the top of the image. Editing controls for aspect ratio, flip, and other tools have also been relocated. The company is also expanding select tools, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), to more devices.

Google Photos 10th Anniversary Updates

In a blog post, Google detailed all of the changes coming to Google Photos as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations. The company notes that since its launch, the app has become home to over nine trillion photos and videos and has more than 1.5 billion monthly users. Each month, users edit almost 210 million photos and it is redesigning the editor to make this process easier.

Photo Credit: Google

As part of the redesign, the Google Photos app will now show details about the image, including its date, time, and location at the top of each image when the full screen view is toggled. It also moves editing tools such as aspect ratio, flip, and rotate to the top as well, when the image editor is engaged. Further, users can also leverage AI-powered suggestions with a feature dubbed AI Enhance. It is said to combine multiple effects for quick edits. They can also tap on specific parts of the image to get suggested tools.

Changes are also coming to Reimagine and Auto frame, two features that were first introduced in Pixel 9's Magic Editor. The former leverages generative AI to change the appearance of elements in the image, such as grass, skies, trees, and more. Meanwhile, the latter is claimed to generate a better frame for a picture that has already been captured. Google says these will be expanding to Android devices globally next month, with iOS availability later this year.

Another addition is the ability to share albums with QR codes. Using this feature, you can generate a QR code that can be shared with other people in the vicinity, or be printed for group events. Google says anyone can scan the code to view or add photos to albums created in the app.