Although Google Photos is going to take away its essence a bit by eliminating the unlimited space to upload photos and videos, it compensates us with other utilities. Each update of the service augurs an important change, or rather, a novelty. In the last gallery novelty, arrive the 3D photos to Google Photos.
According to the company itself, the latest Google Photos update comes with new features focused on editing and in the automatic collection of images. That is, in the type of changes that Google automatically makes in the photos or in the suggestions such as the image perspective or the contrast the app offers for saving them as a new image. All of this is now integrated into a more visible creative space, where we find animations, cinematic photographs, personalized collages y best moments videos.
Thanks to these creation tools, you can generate visual stories e moving images Google Photos handles your photos and videos almost automatically. It not only stores your content, but also uses artificial intelligence to analyze it, extracting patterns, recognizing faces, detecting objects, and creating creative suggestions with a single tap.
3D photos and more news in the update of Google Photos
3D photos are just the icing on the cake, as the update promises more new features for the platform. However, it's the most interesting addition, and one that Google mentions as "cinematic photographs", including some 3D camera appsIt's nothing more than adding a three-dimensional effect to the photographs to give them movement and a sense of depth, so that the image seems to come to life without the need to record a video.
Google Photos It will animate some images by making the subject of the photograph appear larger. or shift slightly with respect to the background. This effect is reminiscent of the classic Ken Burns movement Used in documentaries and advertisements, but taken a step further thanks to artificial intelligence. The result is a feeling of depth and parallax that transforms a static photo into a more immersive scene.
To the user, these cinematic photos are displayed as suggested creations Within the app, usually in the Memories section or the Highlights carousel, you'll find these suggestions. Simply check them to discover new animated versions of your favorite photos, ready to share or save as standalone content in your library.
In addition to cinematic photos, Google Photos powers other automatic creations that are integrated into the same editing space. You can access them all in one place. GIF animations generated from bursts of photos or short videos, to collages with more elaborate designs and best moments videos that combine music, images, and video clips selected by AI based on important people, places, or dates.
All of this positions Google Photos as much more than just cloud storage: it becomes a smart editor and an automatic memory creator that works in the background based on everything you upload to your account.
How the 3D effect in cinematic photos works
To achieve this effect, what the app does is analyze the image and detect depth zones to separate the background from the subject. From a single two-dimensional photo, Google internally generates a depth map This indicates which elements are closer to and farther from the camera. This analysis phase is key to ensuring that the generated movement appears natural and doesn't disrupt the original scene.
As the company itself explains, cinematic photography benefits from Google's previous experience with features such as portrait mode and augmented realityIn these cases they also need to understand the three-dimensional structure of a scene, so they have trained a convolutional neural network able to predict a depth map from a single RGB imagewithout strictly relying on cameras with multiple sensors.
With just one viewpoint (the plane of the photo), the system is able to estimate the depth of the photograph thanks to monocular keys such as the relative size of objects, the perspective of the scene, blur, lighting, and other visual cues. To refine the model, Google leverages data collected from devices like the Pixel and combines it with photographs taken with professional cameras, thus improving the algorithm's accuracy.
Once the two parts are differentiated, Google Photos' artificial intelligence begins to virtually separate the elementsThis leaves the subject closest to the camera in a more enlarged view, while the background appears smaller or displaced. This subtle movement of the subject, combined with slight changes in perspective in the background, creates the 3D effect that we can achieve with some photos and that gives rise to that cinematic look that Google is looking for.
The process is considerably more complex than it seems, since a few misinterpreted pixels They could ruin the final result. That's why the system performs several corrections and further analysis To avoid visual artifacts, edge distortion of subjects, or strange distortions when movement is generated, the goal is for the transition between the subject and background planes to be smooth and believable, even on large screens or when playing content on mixed reality headsets.
Animations, cinematic photos, collages, and best moment videos
Google Photos has reorganized its creative features into a dedicated space for creation where it's easier to access all the tools from one place. From this section, you can create different types of content from your photos and videos without needing advanced editing skills.
Among the possibilities This creative space offers:
- Animations: Small GIFs or animated clips generated from several photos or videos, ideal for sharing quick moments on social networks or messaging apps.
- Cinematic photos: the aforementioned photos with 3D effect, in which a slight camera movement and a change in parallax between the subject and the background are simulated.
- Collages: templates with customizable design which allow you to arrange several photos in the same composition, with backgrounds, colors and fonts adapted to the content.
- Videos of the best moments: videos with music and transitions which automatically include the most representative photos and clips from a period of time, a vacation, or a specific theme.
In the web version of Google Photos, the best moments videos They have taken the place of the old films. This evolution offers the user a greater control over the type of video you want to generate, being able to choose more precisely the people, places, themes or dates that will be part of the final assembly.
The application can also show automatic suggestions to create videos from your most memorable experiences. When the AI ​​detects a trip, a series of photos related to an event, or a significant date, it suggests generating a video of those moments that you can review, adjust, and save with just a few taps.
Although these videos can be created completely automatically, there is also the option to generate a manually video momentsThe user selects the specific photos and videos, sets the order in which they appear, chooses the music, and adjusts the details until they achieve the desired result. Google Photos then handles the transitions and editing to give it a cohesive and appealing look.
Once a video of moments has been created, it is possible Edit it to change the music, reorder clips dragging them to the desired position or delete scenes that you don't want to include in the final result. All these settings allow you to refine the visual story without leaving the application itself, while maintaining full integration with your cloud library.
3D effect in photographs: from depth map to final animation
Undoubtedly, the most interesting addition of all has to do with the "cinematic photos" that Google mentions. It's nothing more than adding a three-dimensional effect Google Photos adds movement and a sense of depth to photographs. It will animate some images by making the subject of the photograph appear larger. or move slightly relative to the background, so that it appears as if the camera is moving within the scene.
To achieve this effect, what the app does is analyze the image and detect depth zones to separate the background from the subject. Once the two parts are differentiated, enlarge and slowly move the subject to give the image a 3D effect. This subtle movement of the subject is similar to Ken Burns movement in film animation, hence the name "cinematic photos".
Basically, the technique is similar to the Pixel's portrait mode: segment the image Once the background is isolated, movement is simulated by shifting the different layers. To make this shift appear fluid and consistent with the scene, multiple shifts are performed. perspective adjustments and corrections that compensate for possible errors in depth calculation.
In some cases, the system can even partially reconstruct hidden areas The background pixels that would be exposed when the subject is moved are generated, creating new pixels based on the surrounding context. All this work is done automatically and without user intervention, beyond accepting or saving the proposed creation.
The final result can be reproduced on both mobile devices and larger screens, and is of particular interest on devices and platforms geared towards mixed reality or to immersive visualization, where changes in depth are perceived more clearly and provide a more immersive feeling.
More collages and more personalized compilations
Moreover, Google also adds new designs for your collagesallowing compositions to be generated with colors and styles best suited to the photographs in the collage. The idea is for the AI ​​to choose visual patterns consistent with the selected images, so that the result doesn't look like a simple generic mosaic.
This is done completely automatically by artificial intelligence: the predominant tonesthe style of the photos, the number of elements, and the orientation of each image to decide the cell distributionthe background color and the type of fontIn case text is included, this will allow for backgrounds and typographic styles that are more in line with the style of the photographs being displayed, moving away from the generic look of the past.
In addition to automatic collages, the user has the option to customize some aspects of the composition, such as the number of photos, the arrangement, or the margins. This gives greater flexibility to create content ready to share on social media or send via messaging without needing to use external apps.
In parallel, Google Photos has also announced the arrival of what it calls "small patterns"This function allows the app to be able to Identify and group images where certain elements are repeatedsuch as a brightly colored backpack, a specific object you use frequently, or recurring elements in your photos. In this way, thematic collections can be generated based on very specific details that the AI ​​detects over time.
These personalized collections help users rediscover memories they may have forgotten, organized by visual motifs, activities, or habits that appear repeatedly in the photographs stored in the library.
New themes in Memories and automatic story creation
And lastly, there new topics in MemoriesNow, certain people will be highlighted based on how frequently they appear in images and how often the user interacts with those photos. The more you interact with a specific group of images (viewing, sharing, or editing them), the clearer the AI ​​becomes that it's a person. important people and moments for you.
As Google Photos better understands who is relevant to the user, it will show them more frequently memories centered on those facesThis includes everything from travel compilations with a specific group of friends to timelines of a family member's evolution over the years, all generated automatically and with smooth transitions.
Soon they also begin to stand out simply favorite objects, places, landscapes, or activities The system analyzes user-generated content, such as photos of a specific sport, sunsets, museum visits, mountain hikes, or beach getaways. It then analyzes location metadata, semantic tags, and detected elements in each image to group them into coherent narratives.
Furthermore, these compilations can take different formats: from story-style slideshow to best moments videos with music, ranging from static collections ready to share. In many cases, Google Photos sends a notification when a new memory is ready, inviting the user to review and save it.
All of this reinforces the role of Google Photos as smart organizerwhich not only stores, but also interpret the context of the images and proposes new ways to revive them through enriched content, whether with 3D photos, personalized collages or video montages.
Creation tools: animations and best moment videos
Google Photos integrates all these features into a single creation space that can be accessed from both your mobile device and your computer. versión webIn this environment, the options for create animations, edit videos of moments o generate cinematic photos and collages without having to navigate through multiple menus.
On a computer, by accessing the official website, it is possible to directly start the creation of a best moments videoThe user can select a general topic by searching and entering keywords related to people, places, topics, or dates that you want to appear in the video. For example, you can search for terms like "birthday," "museum," or the name of a country so that the system filters the associated content.
Google Photos also offers predefined suggestions For these videos, the system already identifies certain people, places, or time periods that it considers relevant. From these suggested elements, simply choose which ones to include, preview the result, and save it to your library for easy access.
If the user does not find the people or time period they want in the suggestions, they can add them manually, which grants a high degree of customization Regarding the final edit: Once created, the video is saved to your Google account and can be played on any compatible device, as well as shared with friends and family.
For those who prefer to control the entire process, there is the option of Create a completely manual video of momentsChoosing photos and videos one by one, the duration of each clip, the order, and other details. Although artificial intelligence still assists with transitions and editing, the selection process falls more directly on the user.
Create and find animations within Google Photos
In addition to the cinematic photographs, the animations They remain one of the most popular creations in Google Photos. These animations can be generated from several still images taken in sequence or from short video clips, and are transformed into brief videos that show continuous movement.
In the web version, simply select several photos and use the creation option to generate an animation. The system allows you to choose up to a certain number of images, from which it composes a GIF or animated clip that is saved as a separate item in your library. These animations are perfect for capture quick actions, like a jump, a chain smile, or any moment with several shots in a row.
Access to animations and highlight videos is also simplified at the search level. search box Google Photos lets you enter terms like "animations" or "best moments videos" so the app displays all creations of that type in one place, without having to browse album by album.
This unified approach ensures that, over time, the user has a genuine film library of automatically generated memories, which complement the original photos and add new ways to relive past events.
Taken together, all these automatic and guided creation features, including 3D photos, make everyday use of Google Photos a a much richer and more dynamic experiencewhere images cease to be static elements and are transformed into complete visual stories.
We have to wait for the arrival of 3D to the Google service
Undoubtedly, all these new features improve the user experience on Android devices and the web version of Google Photos, but in many cases, new functions are rolled out gradually. Google usually... announce certain features in advance and then deploy them in phases, depending on the region, the device, and the version of the application installed.
In other words, even though the company has presented the 3D photos and the rest of the new features, it may be that are not immediately available for all users. Some features appear first in the Android app, others arrive earlier on iOS or the web, and little by little they become equalized until they reach the majority of active accounts.
In the case of cinematographic photos, the deployment also depends on factors such as the device processing capacity and the minimum required version of Google Photos. The intensive use of neural networks and depth models involves a certain computational cost, so some effects might be better optimized for newer mobile devices.
To ensure you have access to these features, it's best to always keep Google Photos updated to the latest version Available in the app store, or you can install updates directly from the platform if you're using the web version. In many cases, new effects and tools appear automatically after an update, without requiring any user changes to their settings.
Over time, these 3D photos, along with improved collages, more personalized best moments videos, and new Memories themes, they will gradually become established as an essential part of the Google Photos experience, even as storage policies and available payment plans change.
Although the disappearance of unlimited storage has been a significant change for many users, the advanced creation features, the 3D effect on photos, and the ability to automatically organize and relive memories make Google Photos a an increasingly powerful tool to manage your visual library and get much more out of every image and video saved in the cloud.
