Google Photos to Enhance AI-Powered Video Generation with Custom Prompts

Google Photos will soon let you choose how you want your photos animated

This third option is a prompt box that will allow you to enter your own prompts. Back in July, Google rolled out a few new features for the Photos app. One of those features is a tool that uses Veo 2 (Google's AI-powered video generator) to turn your pictures into short six-second videos. The tech giant is now working on an update that will give you more control over the style of video this feature creates. When the "Photo to video" feature was rolled out to Google Photos, there were two options to choose from: Subtle movement and I'm feeling lucky. The former simply adds subtle movements, just as the name suggests. While the latter generates videos in random styles. We have spotted that a third option could be on the way. We have conducted an APK teardown of version 6.48 of the Google Photos app. In this version of the app, there's a new prompt box for the Photo to video feature. When you select an image and open the tool, the prompt box will be located right under the two existing options. This new prompt box will allow the user to enter their own prompt. This means you'll be able to dictate what style of video you want the AI to churn out. No more hoping that the random "I'm feeling lucky" option will create what you're looking for. In a separate APK teardown, we also recently spotted new watch faces that will come with the Pixel Watch 4. In total, we discovered eight new watch faces: Reveal, Rushhour, Bold, Expedition, Modular, Pride, Arts & Culture, and Concentric.

Google Photos' powerful image-to-video tool may get more customizable

Google Photos has already picked up a couple of AI features. Among these is the ability to turn still images into short videos, courtesy of a tool aptly named "Photo to video." This feature was recently upgraded with the Veo 3 video generation model, and it now looks like the Photos app is preparing yet another upgrade for this functionality. In its current form, the Photo to video tool offers two effects for generating videos from stills: "Subtle movements" and "I'm feeling lucky." However, a future version of the Photos app could bring more customization with the help of a prompt box to describe exactly what you want to see. The discovery was made by Android Authority while dissecting version 6.48 of the Google Photos app. Unfortunately, barring a visual of the prompt box itself, the site couldn't confirm what the process or the result would look like. It's likely that the prompt box isn't fully functional at the moment, though that could change in future iterations of the Photos app. An upgrade that could make the Photo to video feature more popular As far as feature additions go, this could change how people use Photo to video in the Google Photos app, while also encouraging more to try it out. While "Subtle movement" does exactly what it says, the "I'm feeling lucky" option may require multiple attempts to achieve anything remotely close to what you had in mind. Even then, users will be unable to flex their creative muscles as they would with a dedicated prompt field. There will probably be limits on the number of prompts users can generate within the Photo to video tool each day. Information on this is understandably scarce at this point, since all the knowledge we have on this addition comes from a leak. This also means there's no guarantee that Google will ever bring it to the Photos app. But considering the company's approach to implementing AI functionality across its apps, we wouldn't be surprised if this feature was unveiled in due course. It's worth noting that both Photo to video and Remix, the two generative AI tools in the Google Photos app, are only available in the US. While Photos will offer a "limited number" of generations each day for free, the limit is increased for subscribers of the Google AI Pro or Ultra plans. However, Google's support page doesn't specify the limits in place for either of these tiers.

Google Photos is set to add more AI to help you turn your pictures into videos

One of the neat tricks that AI bots are capable of is turning still images into short video clips, and it's something you can already do in Google Photos, to a limited extent. Now it appears the feature will be getting a substantial upgrade. As spotted by the team at Android Authority, there's hidden code in the latest Google Photos app that suggests there will soon be a full AI text prompt box available for this image-to-video feature - so you can describe exactly what you want to happen. That gives you a lot more flexibility than the current options, which started rolling out in July to some users: 'subtle movement' and 'I'm feeling lucky'. Those options mostly let the AI decide how the photo should be animated. The feature continues to be powered by Google's older Veo 2 model. It's not up to the standards of the latest Veo 3 model, but it's still capable of some impressive and fun results - and all you need is a starting image. It's another example of the way Google is pushing its AI tools into all of its different apps and services - giving Gemini, Veo and the other models a wider reach than competitors such as ChatGPT can manage at the moment. That extends to gadgets as well: Google recently introduced a range of new smart home products, including updated Nest cameras and a Google smart speaker arriving next year, and they all come with Gemini on board. Still, OpenAI continues to expand its offerings with more apps, such as the recently launched Sora 2 video app and attached social network of sorts. Rumors continue that there are ChatGPT-powered hardware devices on the way too. There's no guarantee that the hidden feature spotted in Google Photos will eventually appear and roll out to everyone, but it seems a likely next step - so keep an eye on the app for any updated options that show up.