Google's 'Zoom Enhance' Feature Finally Arrives on Pixel 8 Pro, Coming to Pixel 9 Pro

Your Pixel Is Finally Able to 'Zoom In and Enhance'

You've seen it on countless police procedurals. You've watched Jack Black do it in the movies. And a year ago, Google promised it was coming to the Pixel 8 Pro. Now, the company behind Android is finally letting you "zoom in and enhance" your photos. Yes, the TV and movie trope that's been mocked for decades for being unrealistic is now available in your pocket, kind of. A year late, "Zoom Enhance" is rolling out today on the Pixel 8 Pro, and arriving on all Pixel 9 phones at launch. The company didn't say much new about how exactly it'll work, but judging by the initial announcement, Zoom Enhance will automatically display an "Enhance" button when you zoom in on an already captured photo. According to today's blog post, your phone then "fills in the gaps between pixels and predicts fine details for high-quality, post-capture zoom results." Which is to say, it makes its best guess. Presumably, your Pixel would then save the enhanced image as a separate photo, though I have yet to receive the feature on my own Pixel 8 Pro, so I can't say for sure. During last year's Made by Google keynote, Google Senior Vice President of Devices & Services Rick Osterloh pitched Zoom Enhance as "the kind of zoom enhancement you used to see in science fiction," but "right in the phone in your hand." In reality, the trick is more akin to Adobe's Generative Fill, which invents imagery out of whole cloth that the AI thinks kind of matches your photo. Please don't attempt to play internet detective using zoom enhance -- the feature doesn't reveal more of the original image, but rather doodles vaguely similar pixels on top of it. That's not to say it isn't cool, but it joins dozens of other computational photography tricks in blurring the line between photos and fiction. For now, you can continue to make fun of TV detectives using "zoom in and enhance" without getting egg on your face. We'll have to wait until the feature's been around for a bit to gauge how many liberties it takes with our photos. The example provided today by Google (seen above) wasn't too impressive -- the "enhanced" images look almost identical to the originals, with blur still visible throughout.

Google has finally launched Zoom Enhance, and it's coming to the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 8 Pro

The feature will be available on the Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL and Pixel 9 Pro Fold on day one, and it's also now rolling out to the Pixel 8 Pro - sadly, the standard Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 miss out. While it remains to be seen how well Zoom Enhance will work, it could be hugely beneficial to fans of long-distance photography. The feature uses AI to interpolate information between the existing pixels in an image to create detail, so that you can zoom further into photos after you've taken them, without losing quality. As a reminder, the Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL and Pixel 8 Pro already have 5x optical zoom, along with 30x Super Res Zoom (a digital zoom that uses AI to enhance details when taking a photo). So there was plenty of zoom potential here already, and Zoom Enhance just adds to that, letting you zoom in even more after you've taken a photo, or zoom into shots that you neglected to zoom for at the time of taking them. And this is just one of many AI camera features you'll find on the Pixel 9 line. There's also the likes of Super Res Zoom Video (for AI enhanced video zoom), Video Boost to upscale videos, Add Me to add the photographer to group photos, and a new Reimagine feature in Magic Editor, which lets you completely transform the photos you take. Those are just a few examples, so for AI-boosted photography - and particularly AI-boosted zoom - the Pixel 9 Pro series could be the phones to purchase. Still, you might want to wait for our full reviews before you hit the buy button.

Google Pixel 8 Pro just got a feature that was announced last October -- just in time for Pixel 9 launch

Zoom Enhance is finally rolling out -- 10 months after it was announced Those of you that remember the Pixel 8 launch event last October will remember Google announcing a number of AI-powered camera features -- including Zoom Enhance for the Pixel 8 Pro. Now, 10 months later, that feature is finally ready to be rolled out. Which means it's coming to both Pixel 9 Pro series phones and the Pixel 8 Pro. Google announced this news in a blog post detailing some of the new camera features on the Pixel 9 series. This feature will be coming to Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro X and Pixel 9 Pro Fold, with no apparent love for the standard Pixel 9. However, Pixel 8 Pro owners will be happy to hear that Zoom Enhance has already started rolling out to their phones. For those that don't know, or forgot on account of the 10-month delay in launching Zoom Enhance, this feature is named pretty literally. The idea is that you can keep zooming into your photos, beyond the capability of the camera it was taken with, while AI "intelligently fills in the gaps between pixels and predicts fine details for high-quality, post-capture zoom results." Originally, Google said that Zoom Enhance would be added to the Pixel 8 Pro as part of a future Pixel Feature Drop -- rather than being available at launch. However, it's unclear why it's taken so long for the feature to actually start rolling out, and Google hasn't volunteered that information. Still, it's good to see the company keep its promises and add Zoom Enhance to Pixel 8 Pro, even if it took until the Pixel 9 launch event to make it happen. Plus, the feature will be coming to Pixel 9 Pro phones as well, and hopefully that means Zoom Enhance will be available on release day. Zoom Enhance isn't the only camera feature coming to Pixel 9 phones. Google has also announced features like Add Me, Auto Frame and Reimagine for Magic Editor, the first of which allows you to add the photographer to a group photo using a mix of generative AI and augmented reality. Auto Frame uses generative AI to expand or crop an image to reframe it, while Reimagine lets you submit prompts to change the original background to something totally different. Standalone AI apps are also available in the form of Pixel Screenshots, which automatically collects and organizes your screenshots, and Pixel Studio can generate AI images from scratch. The Pixel 9 series is available to pre-order now, and you can check out our early impressions in our Pixel 9 hands-on review, Pixel 9 Pro & 9 Pro XL hands-on review and our Pixel 9 Pro Fold hands-on review. All 4 phones are available to pre-order now, with the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL releasing on August 22. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold will hit shelves September 4, and the Pixel 9 Pro won't arrive until September 26.

Zoom Enhance is now rolling out to the Pixel 8 Pro

After a protracted wait, the long-awaited Zoom Enhance function is supposedly rolling out for the Pixel 8 Pro right now. In Google's official blog post detailing some of the camera functionality of the Pixel 9 series, Zoom Enhance was briefly mentioned. The function is present on the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL, and 9 Pro Fold right at launch but will be rolling out to the Pixel 8 Pro "starting today." If you're unaware, Zoom Enhance was announced almost a year ago as "coming" to the Pixel 8 Pro during the Made by Google 2023 keynote. It utilizes AI to increase the quality of images at higher zoom levels. Google has not fully detailed how it works but offered the following explanation in the Pixel 9 AI features blog post: Zoom Enhance intelligently fills in the gaps between pixels and predicts fine details for high-quality, post-capture zoom results. There was another example of Zoom Enhance in action, which showcased a photo gaining a little extra fidelity once a toggle has been activated: This demo doesn't show earth-shattering improvements to the image in focus, but extra detail is added without making things look too sharp or artificial. It appears that Zoom Enhance is there to augment rather than overhaul an image. Google hasn't fully detailed how Zoom Enhance will work in the camera application. However, thanks to a video from MilesAboveTech showing it in action, Zoom Enhance appears to be baked into the Google Photos application rather than into the camera UI. Any photos you have that lack fidelity can be enhanced by scrolling to the "Tools" tab, and - when available - you can use the "Zoom Enhance" option to clean up an image using AI. After a few seconds of processing, you can tap and hold to compare the results with the original or pinch and zoom to see what Zoom Enhance has done to the images taken with your Pixel 9 or Pixel 8 Pro device. The latest Google Photos v6.95 has begun rolling out via the Google Play Store, but this doesn't appear to trigger the Zoom Enhance option to appear on Pixel 8 Pro in our testing. It's highly likely that this is a server-side switch so expect it to rollout widely over the next few days and weeks. We may have had almost a year to wait, but at least Google is keeping their promise and adding this long-awaited camera function. Let us know down in the comments section if you have the option appearing on your Pixel 8 Pro.