Google AI editing tools free for more phones
MORE AI-based photo-editing tools will become available from 15 May, with Google announcing that its Magic Editor will be free to use on Android and iPhone handsets and many Chromebook laptops. Magic Editor enables the easy placement or resizing of objects in an image, while also using generative AI to recreate the background when you shift a selected object.
Other Google AI tools about to become available to pretty much all smartphone users include the self-explanatory Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur and Portrait Light.
To use the Magic Editor and other tools, your phone must be running Android 8.0/iOS 15 or higher, or be a Chromebook Plus with ChromeOS version 118+ (or have at least 3GB of RAM).
While it sounds as if Google is being public-spirited here, there are caveats. First, you need to use Google Photos and are limited to ten free Magic Editor ‘saves’ a month. If you go over this limit, you will need to have access to a Google Pixel phone or sign up for a 2TB AI Premium Google One Plan. After a gratis two-month grace period, this works out at £18.99 a month, or nearly £230 a year. In comparison, the current tranche of AI-editing tools in Photoshop and Lightroom can be accessed for £10 a month via Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography Plan, or £120 a year.