Google smartphones will no longer require an outstretched arm to get everyone in a group photo.
Instead, users will now be able to take a photo from behind the camera – and simply add themselves in using AI.
It is one of a host of powerful AI-enabled tools Google announced on Tuesday would feature in its latest Pixel 9 range of smartphones.
To use the new ‘Add Me’ tool, users first need to choose one person to take the group photo.
They then hand the phone over to another member of the group, who takes a second shot of the same scene, this time with them in it.
Google smartphones will no longer require an outstretched arm to get everyone in a group photo
Google’s AI then overlays the two pictures and stitches them together to appear as though everyone was in it in the first place.
‘There’s usually the one designated photographer who’s left out of group pictures,’ Google said at its Made By Google event in California.
‘With Add Me you’ll get a photo with everyone who was there — photographer included — without having to pack a tripod or ask a stranger for help.’
Google has increasingly been using AI to help users edit their photos, such as the Magic Eraser tool introduced last year that allows users to instantly remove people and objects from pictures.
Another, called Best Take, enables users to mix and match people’s expressions in group photos for those who are caught blinking or not smiling.
On Tuesday, Google revealed four new Pixl smartphones (Pixel 9 pictured), and announced it would continue ‘infusing AI into everything we do’
With a surge of AI-generated images fuelling misinformation in recent years, concerns have been raised the new tools could pose a danger to the public’s already fragile trust in online content.
On Tuesday, Google announced it would continue ‘infusing AI into everything we do’, revealing it has also rebuilt its Android operating system to put its chatbot Gemini at its very core.
Users will now be able to rely on the chatbot as a human-like personal assistant, it said, able to ‘understand your intent, follow your train of thought and complete complex tasks’.
The chatbot’s answers will be based on information taken from personal data on the user’s phone, such as a documents or emails.
A new feature, ‘Gemini Live’, will also allow users to have ‘free-flowing’ conversations with the chatbot throughout the day about ‘whatever’s on your mind’.
Google said: ‘You can even interrupt mid-response to dive deeper on a particular point, or pause a conversation and come back to it later.
‘It’s like having a sidekick in your pocket who you can chat with about new ideas or practice with for an important conversation.’
Users have the option to leave it on constantly in the background, allowing them to chat hands-free ‘just like you might on a regular phone call’, it added.
Google said security of this data was paramount and due to its ‘all-in-one approach’ no third-party AI provider would have access to the data.
The company said: ‘So whether your data is being processed in the cloud or on device, it lives within Google’s secure end-to-end architecture, keeping your information safe and private.’
Gemini Live begins rolling out today [Tues] to Gemini Advanced subscribers on Android phones, and in the coming weeks will expand to iOS.
