Google Photos on Android is one of the most popular apps that users use on a daily basis. It’s packed with features, and on Google Pixel phones, there are some very specific integrations. Now, one of those exclusive integrations is now being made available to Google One customers, and it’s improving. Google Photos’ Portrait Blur is coming to all devices, and it will support more subjects as well.
To be clear, Google Photos Portrait Blur has always been available on Google Pixel smartphones, but it only works on people. If it couldn’t detect a face, it wasn’t working, and there was no way to get around it. Now however, it works on objects, pets and people and on all Android devices with at least 3GB of RAM and Android 8.0 or above. If you’re not using a Pixel device, this requires a Google One subscription, which will set you back at least $1.99 per month. You can also pay $9.99 for a one-year subscription on the most basic plan, though there are other subscription tiers.
This isn’t the first feature to go behind a Google One exclusive paywall. The company has previously brought features like HDR, Portrait Light and Color Focus to other Android phones via Google One subscription, though they remained free on Pixel devices. If you think you’ll be making more use of these features to edit your photos, paying $1.99 per month to take advantage of Google Photos’ AI prowess may be a good fit for you.
To be honest, while it’s a useful feature and for some it can be fun to play with, it probably won’t get any better than the portrait mode that’s already supported by your phone. In addition, photos taken in Portrait mode in your phone’s Camera app will probably save a copy of the photo. Without Portrait mode too, which means you’re not getting anything extra using Google Photos instead of editing a photo after the fact. However some phones use telephoto cameras for these types of photos, and this may be where Google has an advantage.
In the same announcement, Google also announced that the new features will be available to everyone in the Messages app.
Source: Google
