Google Photos’ astounding AI Magic Editor tool might soon be free for everyone

Google’s Magic Editor AI photo editing tool has pretty much made terrible phone snaps a thing of the past – at least for those who have access to it via Google One, or a Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro – by letting you change the sky, reposition your subject, and delete unwanted elements of your picture with ease. And it looks like it might be about to become much more widely available.

That’s because 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 be available at some point soon to all Google Photos users. Unfortunately, there’s a catch; unless you pay for Google One you’ll only be able to edit a handful of snaps every month.

Evidence of this change is several strings of code mentioning a “metered” version of Magic Editor. One specific line of code includes a message: “You can save %s edited photos every month or subscribe to a Google One Premium plan for unlimited saves.”

If that’s not a sign that a free metered version of Magic Editor is potentially on the way, we’re not sure what is.

Is a Google I/O announcement incoming?

As with all leaks like this, it’s worth taking the information with a pinch of salt. While the code is strong evidence that Google is working on some kind of free version of its Magic Editor tool there’s no guarantee it’ll launch in the near future or even at all.

To know for certain we’ll have to wait for an official announcement. If we’re lucky we might get one at Google I/O 2024 – its annual software-focused event – when the keynote happens on May 14.

Alongside possible Google Photos news, I/O should treat us to updates on Google’s other AI efforts such as Gemini – its generative AI – and its more mysterious open-source version Gemma. 

Android 15 is expected to make an appearance too, and we might even see a new Google Pixel 8a – though some aspects of the Pixel 8a’s leaked design concern us (thick bezels might be making an unwanted comeback).

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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)

April 10, 2024 11:31 am