Google Photos is rolling out its long-awaited face touch-up tools

Google has an interesting way of selling its latest Photos editing feature. Announcing its new face touch-up tools, the company says your photos should “capture how you feel in the moment” — something that may come as a surprise to the traditionalists who think a photo should show how you actually looked. Either way, Google is now officially rolling out quick retouching options for faces in Google Photos on Android.

In the blog post announcement, Google says the new tools let you apply “subtle enhancements” that refine skin texture, remove blemishes, brighten eyes, or whiten teeth. You just tap a face in a photo, choose from options like heal, smooth, under eyes, irises, teeth, eyebrows, or lips, and then adjust the intensity to your liking.

This feature has been a long time coming. Back in October, we spotted code strings in Google Photos pointing to a Face retouch tool, along with tags referencing things like acne, blemishes, dark circles, and teeth whitening. Then in December, we managed to activate the feature ourselves and got a first look at the Touch Up interface, which included individual controls for features like under-eye, iris, teeth, eyebrows, and lips. The video above shows how the tool worked at the time.

Google says the touch-up tools are gradually rolling out globally in the Google Photos app for Android devices with at least 4GB of RAM and Android 9 or later. Whether you want your photos to reflect reality or your mood at the time is entirely your call.