Google One members on iOS get new ML-powered filters in Photos, including Portrait Light & HDR

Abner Li | Nov 12 2021 - 9:03 am PT

With last year’s Pixel phones, Google introduced new machine learning-powered editing tools that later came to all Android devices with Google One. iOS users with a One subscription now have access to those new filters in Google Photos.

Following the Android expansion in February, iOS Google Photos users with a subscription to Google One have access to:

Portrait light: Change the position and brightness of light for photos of people.
Blur: Blur the background on certain photos of people not captured in portrait mode.
Color focus: Desaturate the background, while you keep the foreground color for photos of people.
Smart suggestions: Easy to use one-tap edits that adapt to each photo’s content.
HDR: Enhance brightness and contrast across the image.
Sky: Select from several palettes and adjust the color and contrast in the sky

The sky palettes include Dynamic, Vivid, Luminous, Radiant, Ember, Airy, Afterglow, and Stormy “super filters” that “apply complex edits with just one tap.” They appear in the “Suggestions” tab of the redesigned editor introduced in June, while other tools, including HDR, are available under “Adjust.”

Meanwhile, upgraded Blur and Color Pop now work on images that don’t have depth information. However:

You can still use blur, color focus, and the color pop suggestion on photos with depth information (for example those taken in portrait mode) even if you’re not a Google One member.

You need to have an iOS device with at least 3 GB RAM and running iOS 14.0 or newer to see the tools. These Google One filters in Google Photos for iOS are rolling out now for subscribers, and are marked as such in the editor.