Google has updated the iOS version of the Google Photos app to now take advantage of the depth data that can be captured by the iPhone’s camera in Portrait Mode. The new feature is already available in the Android app, and allows you to tweak the amount of background blur in a photo.
Google Photos is already considered to be one of the best photo storage and photo-sharing services, both for Android and for iOS users. Now, however, it’s getting a little better for iOS users thanks Google adding support for portrait mode depth editing.
The new feature follows the addition of a similar feature for Android users. In October, Google added the feature to the Android version of the app, with which users can tweak the level of bokeh — or background blur — in a photo after the photo has been taken. In the iOS version of the app, Google still seems to be doing its own processing of the photo, allowing users to change the amount of background blur using a slider in the ap.
Of course, this isn’t the first photo app that can take advantage of the depth data from the iPhone’s camera but it is one of the best. With that data, it’s easy to tweak exactly how much blur is feature in the background, helping the subject of the photo pop out more or less, depending on the amount of blur.
Along with being able to tweak the amount of background blur, Google also added a few other features to the iOS version of the Photos app. For example, there is a new Color Pop option, with which the subject of the photo remains in color while the background becomes black and white. That further helps the subject pop out more.
Both the depth editing features and Color Pop should now be available to iOS users, so if you don’t see them in the Google Photos app on your iPhone, make sure you have the latest version of the app installed.
Recently, Google also added support for Google Lens in the Photos iOS app. Google Lens is basically an image-recognition service, which Google can surface information about an object, show links to buy it, and more. Generally speaking, most of the features that you can find in the Android version of the app also make their way to iOS, though new features may take a few weeks to make their way to iOS.
