Summary
- Google Photos is rolling out an “Ultra HDR” editing tool, replacing the standard HDR effect.
- This new feature can be applied to existing photos to enhance brightness and color with a simple slider.
- The Ultra HDR images are still .jpg files, take up less space, and are viewable (without the HDR effect) on non-HDR devices.
Google Photos has advanced photo-editing tools to take your smartphone photography to the next level. However, that doesn’t mean it’s perfect for finding your memories and editing them on your phone. This leaves plenty of room for improvement in Google Photos, and Google is making the effort to do just that.
Part of the effort is now visible in Google Photos’ new editing tool that many Android users might be familiar with, because it’s been almost two years since Google added it to Android: support for “Ultra HDR.” After introducing native support in Android 14 and Google Photos in 2023, Google has now started rolling out the Ultra HDR editing tool to the Google Photos app.
Google Photos’ Ultra HDR editing can make photos brighter and more colorful
Ultra HDR is interesting because it’s a comparatively new image format developed by Google, but it still uses a .jpg file extension. However, that doesn’t mean they are similar. Ultra HDR adds more depth and light to your photos, which makes it possible to capture more details, irrespective of the conditions those shots were taken. Now, if you are a Google Photos user, you can convert anything you captured in the past and apply Ultra HDR to enhance those shots the same way.
The Ultra HDR editing option is available in the Adjust section of the editor in Google Photos version 7.24.0.747539053, replacing the HDR effect, as per the Android Authority. However, this doesn’t appear to be available for everyone running the same version of the app. For example, we haven’t seen the option in Google Photos yet, suggesting that it could be a server-side rollout. That said, it shouldn’t take long to make it available for all the supported devices.
Source: Android Authority
As for how Ultra HDR editing works, after tapping the option, you’ll get a slider to tweak its strengths, just as you do in the HDR effect. The more strength you add, the more vibrant the images appear, but it can spoil the originality of your image if you apply too much of it. Two other major benefits of converting your images to Ultra HDR format are that they take up less space as compared to JPEG images and can be viewed on non-HDR devices. Of course, when you’re viewing them on non-HDR devices or running an operating system that doesn’t support the format, the images will appear normally, excluding Ultra HDR enhancements.
The best way to understand whether an image is an Ultra HDR is by swiping up on the image in Google Photos and bringing up the details page, where the “Ultra HDR” label will appear right beside the pixel count of the image. If you have the Ultra HDR editing feature in Google Photos, it’s worth trying if you want to transform your smartphone pics.
