The new Camouflage feature is live on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro for us
Google gave the Pixel 6a a snazzy new Camouflage feature for Magic Eraser, which gives the Google Photos-integrated editing tool the ability to select objects in a scene and tint them a different color that stands out less. It’s a subtle way to tweak a photo by drawing the eye to more important parts of the image. Google told us during our review that it would be coming to the rest of the Pixel 6 series after the 6a’s launch, and as of today, we can confirm that it’s showing on phones around the various remote Android Police offices.
The Made By Google Twitter account also tweeted out the feature, implying that it “just” landed, leading us to check if it had actually appeared on our phones — last time we checked, it hadn’t.
If you aren’t familiar with it, we touched on the feature in our review of the Pixel 6a. In Google Photos on compatible devices, under Edit -> Tools -> “magic eraser,” you’ll now see a toggle that lets you switch between an “erase” mode and a “camouflage” mode. The latter lets you circle or brush to select parts of the image you’d like tinted to better blend in with their surroundings, and Google’s AI-powered image editing tools will figure out which color for that area of the photo is least likely to stand out, mask out the object itself, and then tint it to blend in.
The mechanism of the rollout isn’t clear. My Pixel 6 Pro has the feature but hasn’t seen an update to the Google Photos app for several days. The feature could be tied to another app like Play Services or Android System Intelligence, or it may have been ready and waiting inside Google Photos and simply waiting for a feature flag to be remotely flipped following the Pixel 6a’s launch — it was present previously on the Pixel 6a during the review period.
As you’d figure, the feature has the same minimum requirements that Magic Eraser itself does, so you won’t be able to use it on a Pixel 5a, Pixel 5, or earlier phones — this is a Tensor-only party, so that means the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are picking it up. However, there were workarounds for this limit, letting you enable Magic Eraser on any Pixel running Android 12, and I expect that will extend to the Camouflage feature, too.
All of us that have checked at Android Police have the feature, but if for some reason it isn’t showing up on your Pixel 6 or 6 Pro, consider double-checking for app updates or restarting your phone, just in case.
