Google Photos Now Lets You Create Short Videos from Still Images for Free

Google Photos is no longer just a place to store your photos and videos. The app is outgrowing its limits now into becoming your AI-powered memory machine. The app in its latest update brings multiple creative options to help people make old photographs look new again. The best part? You don't have to pay anything.  Here's what's new.

New Photo-to-Video Capability 

The Photo-to-video tool uses AI to turn your still picture into a brief, moving video, like something out of Harry Potter.  It's a 6-second video with soft animation that can bring back memories.  You can choose any photo from your library and then pick a style, such as "Subtle movements" for realistic, gentle animations.  Or say "I'm feeling lucky" if you want the AI to try new things.  You can make it in less than a minute, and if you don't like the first one, you may make it again till you do.  You don't need to sign up to save or share it when you're done. This feature is powered by Veo 2, but there are some limits on how many videos you can make.  This software, on the other hand, is free for everyone to use (at least for now), unlike the Gemini app, which charges for video creation.

Remix Mode

Remix is another entertaining feature that enables you to take a regular picture of your people and add creative styles. It will be available on mobile in the US over the following few weeks. 

New Create Tab 

Google Photos is also adding a new "Create" option to the bottom menu to make it easier to find all of these tools.  It will be next to Photos, Collections, and Search, and it will let you quickly get to: Photo-to-video, Remix, Collages, Highlight reels and more fun AI-powered editing features.

Anything made with these tools will have a SynthID watermark that you can't see but can find, as well as a small label in the corner of films that you can see.  That's Google's way of stating, "This was made with AI," which helps keep people from getting confused about what's real and what's not.  You can also give your creations a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to help them get better in the future.

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