If you are an Android user, Google Photos is probably already a part of your daily life: it organizes the photos and videos on your phone, backs up important memories to the cloud, and provides a set of uncomplicated but useful editing tools when you need them. Google’s latest update focuses on selfies and portrait retouching, emphasizing that these effects will be presented in what the brand calls a “natural” way.
Google Photos launches photo retouching tool for quick, subtle editing of selfies
According to Google today inAnnouncement from the official blog, the image editor built into Google Photos has officially added a new set of retouching tools, aiming to bring “detailed but not obtrusive enhancements” to selfies or photos of friends. These functions include softening skin, reducing blemishes, brightening eyes, enhancing iris details, adjusting eyebrow and lip color, and even teeth whitening. The operation method is quite intuitive: just select a face in the photo, and then select items such as “Repair”, “Soften”, “Under Eyes”, “Irises”, “Teeth”, “Eyebrows” or “Lip” from the toolbar. Each effect comes with a strength slider, allowing users to fine-tune it according to their personal preferences and avoid applying an overly eye-catching retouching effect at once.
It is not difficult to imagine that when Google announced this update, it also spent special time to deal with possible concerns from the outside world. Photo editing tools themselves are not new, but under the influence of fashion, models, internet celebrity culture and social platforms, such functions are often criticized for exacerbating appearance anxiety, especially among teenagers. Google’s statement was obviously cautious in tone, trying to downplay the possible negative impact of these tools and emphasizing that its design philosophy is “natural” and “subtle” rather than creating unrealistically perfect faces.
This defensive posture is not without reason. In recent years, many parents and researchers have expressed concern about the impact of social media on adolescent mental health. Google lost a YouTube-related lawsuit last month, and the discussion about the responsibility of technology platforms comes at a sensitive time. Launching a new photo retouching feature against this background will inevitably attract more scrutiny, so Google obviously wants to make its position clear first.
Nonetheless, for average users, this update is still a useful feature enhancement. After all, taking pictures with your phone is already a part of daily life, and portrait retouching tools have long been standard features in most cameras and photo album apps. Google has launched many AI image processing functions on Pixel series phones in the past, such as magic eraser, perfect photo, etc. Now, it is a logical extension to bring more detailed portrait retouching tools to Google Photos.
As for the rollout schedule of the update, Google said that these features will be “gradually” rolled out to users around the world, which means that users in different regions and different devices may receive the update at different times. If you want to actually try out these tools, your phone must meet at least two requirements: run Android 9.0 or newer, and have at least 4GB of memory. Such hardware requirements are not high, and most recent Android devices should be able to meet them.
Overall, this update is not the kind of major overhaul that will change the positioning of Google Photos, but it does make up for an area of functionality that has been relatively weak in the past. Google is also trying to strike a balance between “providing more image processing power” and “avoiding promoting appearance anxiety,” although whether this balance can truly be achieved remains to be seen. But at least at the usability level, these tools make it easier for users to adjust selfies and portrait photos without the need to download additional third-party photo editing apps.
Source: KOCPC Chinese