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Google Leaks Exciting New Google Photos Feature

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New features have been found hidden within the latest release of the Google Photos app, pointing to powerful capabilities for the forthcoming Pixel 8.

According to researchers at 9to5Google, the latest version of the Google Photos Android app has been found to contain controls for a brand new Video Unblur feature, not currently available on any Pixel device.

After ‘forcibly’ enabling the feature by tweaking the application code, the team was able to open a video file and view a new adjustment slider, presumably to control the amount of the Unblur effect.

I say ‘presumably’ because, as of now, the adjustment doesn’t actually have any effect on the loaded video. It’s likely then that Google has coded the new controls in preparation for a feature which will appear at some point in the near future.

Going by past experience, it’s not unlikely that Video Unblur might become an exclusive feature for the forthcoming Pixel 8 range, showcasing its new hardware capabilities in much the same way that Photo Unblur arrived as a Pixel 7-only feature that relies on the current Tensor G2 chip to perform the required processing.

Photo Unblur allows Pixel 7 owners to automatically remove unwanted motion blur that commonly occurs when photographing fast-moving subjects. While motion blur can be used creatively to great effect, most of the time it just makes your photos look smeared and less detailed.

The feature is currently promoted under the #FixedOnPixel hashtag alongside Google’s Magic Eraser tool that helps you to quickly remove unwanted distractions, such as strangers from the background or trash from a landscape.

Adding a video version of this feature would be an impressive upgrade for the Pixel provided, of course, that Google can deliver convincing results. However, processing video is considerably more demanding than processing a photo, so it would come as no surprise if next-gen Google hardware, i.e. a Pixel 8, is a requirement for the feature to work.

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