Google Photos now has a subtle new but much needed feature

June Wan/ZDNET

Whether or not you’re an iOS or Android consumer, Google Pictures is a superb photograph storage and sharing service with options similar to Magic Editor and Ask Photos. Nevertheless, one very fundamental function was lacking till this week — a photograph flip possibility. 

First noticed by Android Police, customers can now flip or mirror their images from the Google Pictures app. Though which will sound like a basic function, the essential edit capabilities solely allowed customers to crop, rotate, or alter an image’s side ratio earlier than this replace. 

Additionally: Gemini Live is finally hitting Android phones – how to access it for free

Some useful situations of mirroring a picture embrace taking a selfie on an iPhone, which is mechanically set to invert your selfie digicam, holding the true orientation of the photograph. 

This can be a private pet peeve of mine as a result of I typically need my selfies to appear to be what I see within the mirror. Nevertheless, I am unable to get myself to activate the “mirror font digicam” setting as a result of, generally, having the precise orientation is healthier. 

Different useful situations for mirroring a picture embrace images, including steadiness and symmetry, or correcting orientation. Even if you cannot consider a use case now, it’s good to have the choice the place all of your footage are saved with out downloading them again to your cellphone simply to carry out this fundamental perform.

Nevertheless, a extra thrilling function in Google Pictures is the “Ask Photos” function. By leveraging AI, customers can ask the chatbot to discover a photograph, as a substitute of looking via hundreds of images themselves. 

Additionally: Google Veo is coming to YouTube, bringing dynamic AI backgrounds to Shorts

For instance, in the course of the demo of the function at Google I/O, as a substitute of typing within the key phrase “license plate” and scrolling via the entire images themselves, customers can now ask, “What’s my license plate quantity?” Gemini will pull the quantity for them, utilizing context to determine which automobile belongs to the consumer. 

The “Ask Pictures” function is strictly experimental for now and is obtainable to pick US customers as a part of Google Labs. If , you’ll be able to be part of the waitlist by going to the Google Photos page, scrolling right down to the Ask Pictures part, coming into your Gmail handle, and clicking the “Be part of the waitlist” button.

Shopping cart