Google Photos getting the ability to add blur to any photo on Pixel first

Google has announced today that over and above the standard monthly security updates, Pixel users can now expect to receive larger updates to make their phones more useful via Pixel feature drops. According to Google:

Your phone should get better over time. Your Pixel automatically updates regularly with fixes and improvements. Now, your Pixel will also get bigger updates in new Pixel feature drops.  Our first one, coming this month, includes a new way to capture portraits, easier Duo calls and automatic call screening. 

Though this coming update will include some fun tricks for Duo – including background blur while in a video chat and a face-following feature – a more exciting addition is the ability to add background blur (called bokeh, for those interested) via the Google Photos app to images that were captured without the portrait mode turned originally.

Ostensibly, this feature will only apply to the app on a Pixel phone at first, but I could see this coming to all phones and even the web version down the line. After all, Google’s portrait mode has always been based on software, not hardware, so as the algorithm has become more accurate over time, it stands to reason that it is smart enough to do this on any photo with nice, sharp edges.

There are apps out there that attempt to do this and in some instances, they do the job decently. Google’s photo magic is heads and shoulders above anything else out there due to the impressive machine learning they’ve trained over the years, so I’m very excited to see this trickle down to the web version of Google Photos over time versus trusting a 3rd party to make this happen. I love the idea of adding a bit of bokeh to an older photo even if I didn’t consider portrait mode at the time, and I love the idea of Google Photos continuing to gain features that continue making it such a joy to use.

SOURCE: The Keyword