There is no Google app that I like more than Google Photos, it seems to me to be a complete success in all its functions. As a gallery, as a backup system, It is perfect for taking all my photos anywhere and even to edit them before sharing them. And with all the potential of Google’s AI: what it achieves in the Google Pixel 8 Pro it’s amazing.
I am currently in the process of analyzing the Pixel 8, the smallest of the most recent family of phones. Although I also have the Pixel 8 Pro, both offer a very similar service without being excessively differentiated in hardware. Not much in software either; beyond that Pro includes Gemini AI locally. Of course, the magic editor works in both, a photographic tool that lives up to its name.
The magic editor does not disappoint: it makes real magic
Both the Pixel 8 and the Pixel 8 Pro incorporate the magic editor in the editing options of Google Photos without any real differences in their speed, effectiveness and number of tools included. It’s almost like having a private ChatGPT although with the advantage of modifying the images themselves at will.
With the aforementioned magical editor you can retouch photos, apply bokeh afterwards, allow you to crop any element of the image, resize it and even make up the background completely, like ChatGPT. In my opinion, it only needs a text box to tell the magic editor what the background of the cutout should be, Google would round out the tool. Despite this lack, it is one of the functions that I like most about the Google Pixel 8 Pro (and the Pixel 8 or Samsung Galaxy S24, which also have it).
Once any image in the gallery is opened, the small magic editor icon appears at the bottom right so that, when you click, you can access the tool’s options. There are not many of them and they seem really simple, the power is in the processing: It can work automatically (magic wand), with random operation, or it can be forced into manual mode.
By surrounding the element of the image that you want to modify, the magic editor will cut it out of the background with almost total perfection, even in areas where the outline and background blur. Once the area has been highlighted, can be moved to any part of the image, make it larger, smaller and let Google’s AI invent the background. The limit is your imagination, with a few steps the image can completely change.
Select, crop and resize with background creation
Once I got the hang of the mechanics of surrounding, cropping, resizing and repositioning I was able to redo group photos to remove other people by putting myself in the center and without the seams showing, For example. Everything on the phone and without the small touch screen being clumsy when editing: one of the advantages is the extreme simplicity of the magic editor. What would take me a lot of work to do on the computer with Photoshop, I can do on my mobile in less than a minute.
AI perfectly integrated into a photo app
The magic editor has fitted the resizing very well, squaring the background and the rest of the image
The magic eraser that Google introduced in the Pixel 6 It was good and it really did magic. With this twist, and the seasoning of even more AI, magic editor reaches witchcraft levels: You can make a photo change completely without noticing the extreme editing using Artificial Intelligence. Is awesome.
If I didn’t have it on the Google Pixel 8 Pro, I would buy it: the magic editor seems brutal to me to improve those images that, due to the specific moment, the scene or bad luck, did not end up turning out as they should. Even opens the door to artistic creation, you just need imagination and plan post-production before taking the photo. Pretend to hold up a building? I prepare the image to appear in front of said building and, with the magic editor, I crop and resize it until I get the result I want. The result is true magic.
The magic editor is one of those tools capable of selling a phone. Or several, that Google has put it in the two Pixel 8s and, in addition, has given it to the three Samsung Galaxy S24s. In all cases the results are identical, only the execution time varies depending on whether or not the mobile has access to Gemini Nano locally. And it is very worth trying.
