Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- A recent Pixel Studio update lets you share images from other apps with Google’s AI-powered app.
- This means you don’t necessarily have to download pictures first before using them in Pixel Studio.
Google’s Pixel Studio app on the Pixel 9 series lets you create all-new images or edit existing images with the help of AI. However, it looks like the app has received a notable addition that could make life a little easier.
A new version of the Pixel Studio app (version 1.1.001.672728916.05) now allows you to share an image from any app with Pixel Studio so it can be edited. Once you’ve tapped the share button, you’ll see Pixel Studio as one of the options in the sharing menu. This joins the existing ability to choose pictures from the Pixel Studio’s gallery picker. This new feature is convenient as it means you don’t have to download your desired image first and then select it in the gallery picker before editing it.
We were able to sideload the latest version of the app and get the feature running on our own Pixel 9 series device. Check it out in the short video below.
There are a couple of limitations, though. The most notable restriction is that the app or service you’re sharing from needs to explicitly support the sharing of image files rather than URLs. That rules out Instagram and web browsers, which share a URL instead of an image with other apps. But you can share images from Slack or WhatsApp. In saying so, you can use the Pixel’s “select” ability from the recents menu to grab and share an image from unsupported apps.
It’s also worth noting that Pixel Studio doesn’t support photos of human subjects, so don’t expect these snaps to show up when sharing them from another app. But this isn’t a surprise as Google previously noted this restriction at launch.
The new feature still seems unpolished at this stage, though, as we found that it sometimes took multiple tries for Pixel Studio to successfully open pictures. So we hope Google refines this sharing option very soon.
