Google's Pixel line seldom packs best-in-class hardware, but thanks to super-smart camera software and powerful editing tools, it's still revered as one of the best camera phones you can buy, a reputation the new Pixel 9 series is clearly poised to carry forward.
For 2024, Google introduces Add Me to its new phones to make group shots easier, as well as upgraded lowlight panoramas, and improves Magic Editor with two new features: Auto Frame and Reimagine.
These updates join a slew of trademark Pixel tools, including Magic Eraser, Audio Magic Eraser, Best Take, Photo Unblur, Zoom Enhance, and Portrait Light, which are already available on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro .
Going beyond editing, the new Pixels also look set to benefit from Google's latest computational photography smarts, including Super Res zoom, Night Sight, Top Shot, Face Unblur, and its notoriously powerful photo processing.
Add Me, Auto Frame and Reimagine
The three most standout image editing features introduced on the new Google Pixel 9 series are Add Me, Auto Frame, and Reimagine.
Starting with Add Me, it helps photographers get in a group shot without having to resort to a selfie camera. Instead, Add Me uses the primary camera and AI compositing smarts.
First, you take a picture of the group shot you want to be in, leaving room for you to slot into. Next, a fellow group member takes your phone, frames things up, and directs you using on-screen prompts to get in the shot. Once you're in position, they take a second photo and Add Me will composite both shots into one primary camera-quality photo.
Get the Digital Camera World Newsletter
The best camera deals, reviews, product advice, and unmissable photography news, direct to your inbox!
The result is a group shot that bypasses the selfie camera's inferior quality and awkward framing without leaving anyone out.
Auto Frame combines AI photo reframing with Google's generative fill within the Pixel 9's Magic Editor. If you haven't used Google or Samsung's generative fill feature, they let you rotate an image without cropping, using generative fill to expand it. Auto Frame, by contrast, analyzes an image, assesses the best framing for the focal point, and makes it so, even if that requires generative fill.
Finally, Reimagine combines text-to-image with photo editing. Adobe users may already be using text-to-image edits in Photoshop Beta, but for the Pixel 9 series, it's even more accessible. Within Magic Editor, type what you want to be changed in your photo and your wish is its command, with Google adding everything from a hot air balloon to flowers in the demo of the feature at the Pixel 9 launch event.
Video also gets a boost on the new Pixels with an aptly named feature called 8K Video Boost, and the line also gets upgraded panoramas with improved HDR and lowlight quality compared to past pixels.
A recap of existing Google features
As you can see below, Magic Editor for the Pixel 8 already includes object removal and resizing, tools to swap out elements like the sky and generative fill.
When you take a photo with Pixels, you can also choose individual faces in a group shot so everyone's smiling at the camera with Best Take, and within the Pixel Photo app, Unblur and Unblur Faces can salvage shaky hand shots with surprisingly impressive results.
Google's AI smarts are firing on all cylinders within the camera app as well with intense bracketing creating a single photo from a composite of shots at different exposures. In addition to helping Google produce optimal skin tones and dynamic range, this mechanism is behind Night Sight, improving nighttime capture.
Finally, a key area Google Pixel phones are leading the charge for mobile photography alongside Vivo is zoom, with the Pixels combining in-sensor cropping with high-resolution sensors and AI object recognition. This creates what Google promises to be supremely detailed zoomed-in shots at up to 20x on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and 30x on the Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL.
To find out more about Google's latest announcements, read our overview of the Made by Google 2024 Pixel 9 launch, and check back for full reviews of all four phones in the coming weeks.
