Google announces even more AI in Photos app, powered by Nano Banana

We’re running out of ways to tell you that Google is releasing more generative AI features, but that’s what’s happening in Google Photos today. The Big G is finally making good on its promise to add its market-leading Nano Banana image-editing model to the app. The model powers a couple of features, and it’s not just for Google’s Android platform. Nano Banana edits are also coming to the iOS version of the app.

Nano Banana started making waves when it appeared earlier this year as an unbranded demo. You simply feed the model an image and tell it what edits you want to see. Google said Nano Banana was destined for the Photos app back in October, but it’s only now beginning the rollout. The Photos app already had conversational editing in the “Help Me Edit” feature, but it was running an older non-fruit model that produced inferior results. Nano Banana editing will produce AI slop, yes, but it’s better slop.

Google says the updated Help Me Edit feature has access to your private face groups, so you can use names in your instructions. For example, you could type “Remove Riley’s sunglasses,” and Nano Banana will identify Riley in the photo (assuming you have a person of that name saved) and make the edit without further instructions. You can also ask for more fantastical edits in Help Me Edit, changing the style of the image from top to bottom.