If you’re using Google Photos under the free 15GB plan, you’re missing some powerful editing tools

The Google Photos editing features demonstrated in the photos above, “Dynamic,” “Magic Eraser,” “Portrait,” and “Background Blur,” are only avaialbe to you if you subscribe to Google One. How do you do that? Just pay a minimum of $2/mo for account storage. If you are struggling to keep your storage within the 15GB free account level – stop struggling! I think it is SO worth $2/mo for these premium editing features alone. Just open your Google Photos app, tap the account button (circle in upper right) and tap where it says “Get Storage.” That will take you straight to Google One and show you pricing options for monthly or annual payments. AND, you can share your Google One storage with up to 5 others!

The Google Photos app on mobile devices has an extensive set of editing tools. They are different from the tools available on the Web version of Photo.Google.com. This change happened in late 2020 for Android and mid 2021 iOS, and more tools have been added since. You can watch this video from Nov 2020 to review the main editing tools on mobile.

If you open any photo and tap the edit button you will see all your choices. Any tool with a multi-colored 1 is a premium tool. These are what I’m talking about. Right away, on the Suggestions tab, you’ll see “Dynamic” – this is the tool I used on the first photo above. Notice there is also a tool for “Color Pop” this one will only appear if your photo has people or other distinct objects in the foreground.

If you scroll over to the Tools menu, you will see more premium options:

If you try to use one of these premium features without having a Google One subscription, you will be prompted to “Unlock this feature and more with a 1-month Google One trial. After one month, you will need to pay the $2/mo. Once you try these features on your photos, you won’t want to live without them!

About the author: Chris Guld has been teaching technology since 1983. Since 2010 her focus is on smartphones and photography. She wrote a book on Picasa in 2009, you can get her current book: Learn Google Photos at Amazon. Chris is a Diamond Level Google Product Expert in Google Photos.