Google One members get premium editing features on Photos: Report

Some premium Google Photos editing features can be unlocked only through a Google One membership.

Google Photos editor (Google)

Google One members could get some exclusive editing features on the Google Photos app. An APK teardown of the Google Photos app reveals the presence of premium editing features that users can get by subscribing to Google One.

Google Photos v5.18 comes with evidence of premium editing features which were discovered by XDA Developers. There aren't details of which features exactly will be premium but the APK teardown reveals strings mentioning Google One subscription. According to XDA Developers, Google Photos users will get prompts to subscribe to Google One.

The strings reveal prompts that read, “As a Google One member, you get access to extra editing features,” and “Get extra editing features with a Google One membership.” It has more prompts such as “Unlock this feature and more with a Google One membership,” and “Unlock more editing features and {storage_amount} of storage with a Google One membership.”

The prompts make it quite clear that Google One will offer exclusive editing features for its members. XDA Developers' Mishaal Rahman also shared a screenshot of one user spotting the colour pop feature locked behind the Google One paywall. Google later told The Verge that it's not locking the colour pop feature but it's a new version.

“In Google Photos, color pop is a feature that continues to be available for anyone to use, at no cost, for photos with depth information (such as portrait mode). As a part of an ongoing roll out that began earlier this year, Google One members can apply the feature to even more photos of people, including those without depth information,” The Verge quoted Google as saying.

Google didn't reveal more on the exclusivity of editing features on the Photos app. But it looks like some perks will be exclusive to Google One members. Google also recently introduced its VPN service with Google One membership priced at $9.99 and above.