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When it comes to Google-made software products, it doesn’t get much better than Google Photos. Sure, Search, Gmail, Drive and Docs are pretty stellar, but Google Photos is one of those services that just gets so much right about photo storage, sharing, and manipulation. It’s been awesome since it showed up on the scene and has only become a better service in the years since. And today, Google has quietly added some fun new filters for your videos to the mix.
Thanks to some keen eyes by In Depth Tech Reviews (via Android Police), we’ve been made aware of this new feature that is reminiscent of the old-school filters we all used to use and abuse on Instagram in the early days. They’re fun and for the right type of video (short-form, really), these quick-hit filters could give you just the mood you are looking for.
How to try out Google Photos video filters
To try them out for yourself, first be sure you are on the latest version of Google Photos. In my case, 6.42.0.542337313 is the exact build and was last updated June 22, 2023. Once you are fully up to date, you should be able to simply open a video, hit the edit button, and select the Effects tab along the bottom.
This should introduce 12 new effects for you to try on your video, including Vintage, Dust Mix, B&W Film, Lomo, and more. The effects are generally pretty heavy, so you’ll either love them or hate them depending on the look you are after. What’s fun is the fact that these effects don’t undo your other adjustments, so if you want to do a bit of color correction or cropping beforehand, you can do that first and then apply the effect afterwards.
For now, we’re only seeing this on Android, but I’d assume the new filters will trickle down to Apple hardware and Chromebooks over time. Now that Chromebooks have their own version of Google Photos with the video editing abilities that were recently added, new feature additions like this may arrive a bit later than the standard Android app moving forward. We’ll keep a lookout for them, and as we wait, we’ll play around with these new filters a bit on our phones. You should too.
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