Google Photos adds new ‘Touch-up’ tools for effortless portrait editing

Whether you are trying to fix a late-night blemish or just want to brighten up a photo taken in poor lighting, Google Photos is rolling out a new set of editing features to help you look your best. The new touch-up tools are designed to be simple and intuitive, focusing on making subtle fixes that look natural rather than over-processed.

Targeted Enhancements

The update introduces a dedicated menu of options once you select a face in your photo. Instead of applying a blanket filter to the entire image, you can now choose specific tools to refine individual areas:

• Heal: Quickly remove minor blemishes or distractions.
• Smooth: Even out skin texture for a cleaner look.
• Brighten Eyes & Whiten Teeth: Subtly enhance your features to make them pop.
• Detailing: Dedicated sliders for eyebrows and lips to add a bit of definition.

The best part of this implementation is the intensity slider. Once you select a tool like “smooth” or “under eyes”, you can adjust exactly how much of the effect is applied, ensuring you don’t lose the character of the original photo.

Availability and Requirements

Google is gradually rolling these tools out globally to the Google Photos app on Android. Because these tools rely on some local processing power, there are a few hardware requirements:

• Device: Android phones or tablets.
• Memory: At least 4GB of RAM.
• OS: Android 9.0 or higher.

If you have a modern Android phone or Chromebook Plus device that supports the Google Photos Android app, you should see these tools appearing in your editor shortly. It’s another great example of Google bringing its advanced AI editing capabilities down from Pro status into the hands of every user.