The Google Photos app has new tools for retouching your selfies.
The Android photo editor from Google Photos recently got a set of tools for improving faces. This new feature allows users to remove blemishes, improve skin texture, brighten eyes, and whiten teeth. To use it, simply select a face in the photo and choose from one of the available options: Remedies, Smoothes, Under Eyes, Iris, Teeth, Eyebrows, and Lips. Each effect includes a slider to control its intensity, allowing the user to fine-tune the result.
Google insists the goal is to deliver "subtle" changes, though this depends on how much the user moves the slider. The company justifies this feature by saying your photos should "reflect how you feel in the moment," which might sound appealing in a press release, but in reality, it opens the door to systematically manipulating reality. This isn't a new criticism: the debate surrounding beauty filters integrated into everyday apps has been ongoing for years, and Google is only making matters worse with this addition.
The new tools are being rolled out gradually worldwide for the Google Photos app on Android, requiring at least 4GB of RAM and Android 9.0 or later. Their operation on these basic devices indicates that most processing is done via cloud computing, not on the phone itself. This ensures compatibility with older devices, but it also means sending biometric data—facial features—to Google's servers, something not everyone might consider when using this feature.
The release date for iOS is yet to be confirmed. But it's clear that Google is aiming to enable users to make these edits without leaving the app, eliminating the need for third-party tools. This strategy makes sense: since the launch of the "Magic Eraser" feature in Google Photos—initially exclusive to Pixel phones and later available to Google One subscribers—the app has been expanding its arsenal of AI-powered editing tools for years, becoming a comprehensive solution. These new face tools are another step in this direction, but they also indicate the increasingly blurred line between photography and retouching.