Google Photos is launching a face editing feature — here's how it works

Google Photos has plenty of editing tools available to help you get the most out of your photos. However, you may want to wait before uploading your next profile picture, as a long-awaited helpful feature could be on the horizon.

While you certainly can't call Google Photos a slouch when it comes to editing options, it does have some strange limitations, like a lack of options for enhancing a subject's face. Thankfully, Android Authority recently revealed that this could soon change as Google Photos' “Touch Up” feature could be close to release.

While mentions of Touch Up were seen in prior code strings, we hadn't been functional. However, Android Authority was able to enable the feature in version 7.56.0.839465534 of the Google Photos app, which gives us our best idea of how it will work and what it can do.

When activated, Touch Up appears in the Actions tab in the Google Photos editor, although you will need to download 16MB of machine learning models when you first open it. Once that's done, you'll have access to the interface, which contains sliders for the following options:

• Smooth
• Under Eyes
• Irises
• Teeth
• Eyebrows
• Lips

This alone would be a useful addition, but it doesn’t stop there. According to the report, Google Photos can also enhance individual faces in group photos. While it is limited to groups of six, the app is able to detect each face and allow you to add individual edits to each.

Google Photos gets more edits itself

This isn't the only addition we've seen when it comes to Google Photos, as the last iOS update introduced the “Help me edit” tool that's available on Android. This new feature lets you use voice commands to quickly make changes to your images, for instance, asking the app to change the location of an image, or even add or remove aspects. It’s not perfect, but we've found it to be leaps ahead of what Apple is offering in our tests.

While the Touch Up feature appears to be in full working order, we don't know for certain when it will actually be released to the general public. However, it's likely to be sooner rather than later, and we'd expect it to be a go-to for anyone with one of the best camera phones.

Let us know if you've been using any photo editors on your phone, or do you prefer to avoid them.

Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.