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Yesterday, Google made an announcement that I wasn’t too shocked by. As a matter of fact, I glanced at the story, shrugged my shoulders, and moved on with my day. But hidden just under the surface in their post about Google Photos generally getting some of the once-Pixel-only AI editing features, there lurked a tidbit I totally missed until I saw a post by PC World about the fact that these features won’t be coming to desktop apps or the web, but will definitely land on Chromebook Plus.
Chromebooks getting preferential treatment
Oddly buried in Google’s post is a footnote that specifies Chromebook Plus as the target for these upgrades. While the post is pointing out the fact that as of May 15th most Android and iOS users will get access to Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur and Portrait light – with some users getting access to more powerful tools like Magic Editor as well – the footnote specifically points out Chromebook Plus as a target for these updates.
While most times we see these sorts of additions to Android apps and hope they work on Chromebooks, this time around it seems Google is clearly targeting ChromeOS as a landing spot for these updated features. And for those of us in the Chromebook camp, that’s exciting.
While users of Windows or MacOS won’t have access to these new AI photo editing features, Chromebook Plus users will get to add this stuff to the growing list of things their devices are capable of. Add this to our exclusive sneak peek of the upcoming AI-powered “Help me write”, wallpaper and video background generation tools and it looks like Chromebook Plus is finally starting to separate from the rest of the Chromebook pack in the coming weeks. I’d imagine this and the other AI features we’ve been discussing will all arrive at some point in May and I know I’m not the only one who’s ready for it all!
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