Newsletter
Google has announced some improvements to Google Photos during its Google I/O keynote, thanks to Machine Learning / AI. Google Photos has been offering the ‘Memories’ feature for a while now, but it will become much better soon.
AI will boost Google Photos ‘Memories’ feature, by a large margin
The company will use machine learning to do a better job at resurfacing photos. It will go above and beyond resurfacing photos based on themes. It will be able to pick up on not-so-obvious visual patterns in your photos.
If Google Photos spots a set of three or more photos that share things like shape or color, it will highlight those little patterns for you in your memories. Google even gave out an example.
One of the company’s employees had quite a few images in which he had an orange backpack. It seems like he went backpacking with family / friends. Well, Google highlighted those pictures, and put them under one memory, calling it “Adventures of the orange backpack”.
This feature will become available “later this summer”, said the company. That’s all the availability information we got, no specific timeframe was shared.
Google Photos will also be able to highlight memories of the moments you celebrate
Later this year, Google will add some additional features to Google Photos ‘Memories’. It will be able to highlight memories of the moments you celebrate, such as Diwali, Lunar New Year, Hanukkah, and so on.
These memories will pop up as you scroll through your photo grid, along with the “Best of Month Memories” and “Trip highlights”, which the company is starting to roll out today.
‘Cinematic moments’ are coming soon
Something called “Cinematic moments” is also coming to Google Photos. So, if you capture several images that are almost the same, as we tend to do in order to get the perfect picture, Google will be able to create something interesting with that.
It will be able to use neural networks to synthesize the movement between two nearly identical photos and fill in the gaps with new frames. That way, it will be able to create a moving image, or as the company calls it, “Cinematic moment”.
Starting today, you’ll be able to rename a Trip highlight as well, or remove it completely. You’ll also be able to remove a single photo from a Memory, remove Best of Month Memories and rename or remove Memories based on the moments you celebrate. That feature is coming soon, but we don’t know when exactly.
‘Locked Folder’ feature will keep your private images away from the general feed
Last, but not least, the company announced ‘Locked Folder’. That is a passcode-protected space where you can save photos separately. That way, they won’t show up on your feed while you’re scrolling, in order to avoid prying eyes. Locked Folder is coming to Pixels first.