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While Google’s Pixel 8 series phones were initially heralded as AI-powered smartphone champs thanks to their ability to use features like Magic Editor, which up until today have been exclusive to the handsets. In a rather surprising move however, Google recently announced that it will be bringing over some of its AI editing tools to non-Pixel devices via its Google Photos app.
The editing features will be available to more users starting on May 15 – as such, tools including Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur and Portrait light will be available to anyone using Google Photos, without the need for a subscription. Meanwhile, Magic Editor will expand to all Pixel devices, which should be much-welcome update for Pixel users on older phones.
Interestingly, Magic Editor will be available for Google Photos users on other Android devices as well, and even folks on iOS devices. There’s a limit however, as non-Pixel users only get up to 10 Magic Editor saves per month, although you can bypass this limit by subscribing to a Premium Google One Plan (or by purchasing a Pixel phone).
Perhaps it’s safe to say that this is both a good and somewhat “bad” thing – on one hand, more users will now be able to access Google’s impressive editing tools. However, it does dampen the company’s claims of such features needing “special” hardware such as Tensor to run, seemingly confirming early rumors that tools like Magic Editor were able to work solely via cloud, and not on Google hardware.
With that in mind, Google does have some minimum requirements in play though. For example, Android phones will need at least 3GB of RAM to support these features, in addition to Android version 8 and up. Additionally, the editing tools won’t be able to work on 32-bit smartphones – the same requirements are the same for iOS devices, which will need to run iOS 15 and later.
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