Google Photos takes on CapCut with a big video editor update
Over the past year, the Google Photos app has seen a series of redesigns. The image editor was one of the first things to get refreshed, and now Google has moved on to videos. If you rely on third-party apps like CapCut for simple video editing, prepare to hit the “Uninstall” button.
The big thing you’ll notice is that the main video editing screen looks a lot like a traditional video editing app. The universal timeline supports multiple video clips and there is a separate audio track. Clips can be cut, cropped, edited and rearranged directly from the timeline.
Visually, the update brings the video editor up to speed with the image editor overhaul, i.e. Material 3 Expressive. You’ll find a suite of powerful editing tools, some of which you may already be familiar with. There are sliders for everything from brightness and contrast to white point, shadows, highlights and more. Google also added custom text effects.
The update also includes a new audio section where you can mute the original video or get started with adding music. Google Photos now offers a library of categorized soundtracks, allowing you to choose music to suit the mood of your video. Once you’ve selected a track, you can choose the exact section of the song you want to use and adjust the volume balance between the video’s original audio and the new music.
These features are coming to iPhone and Android, but users of the latter also benefit from highlight video templates. This is a great way to start a video. Open the “Create” tab, select “Highlight Video,” choose a style, and choose the photos and videos you want to include. Google Photos automatically handles music, text, and cuts, then drops it all into the new universal timeline view for you to edit.
Google says all of these features are currently rolling out. Video editing is something Google Photos has never really been great at, so it’s nice to see the feature getting a major boost.
Source: Google
I thought Google Photos ruined the editor, but this won me over
This year marked the 10th anniversary of Google Photos and to celebrate, a redesign was announced. The most visible changes appeared in the editor, and after initially being very opposed to this change, it really won me over over time.
