Google looks set to shake up the smartphone market in a matter of weeks with four Pixel 9 handsets likely to appear at the Made by Google event on August 13.
Alongside the regular model, we’re expecting a Pixel 9 Pro, a Pixel 9 Pro XL and a Pixel 9 Pro Fold. And all four handsets look set to be united by their reliance on AI for their big selling points, based on two leaked promo videos shared by Android Headlines and OnLeaks, here and here.
The videos have, perhaps unsurprisingly, been removed from Google-owned YouTube, but screenshots capture the main points for posterity.
Both teasers begin with Ask Gemini and Pixel Screenshots. Gemini is shown creating a recipe based on a photo of what’s in the user’s fridge, while Pixel Screenshots is demoed recalling information by searching past snapped screenshots.
But the main AI enhancements are with the camera — or rather, editing contents taken by the camera. Magic Editor appears to be getting two new major party tricks.
The first of these will allow users to use generative AI prompts to change things about a photograph via a “Reimagine with” prompt. In the clip, the phrase “dramatic sunset” is added, and a picture of two friends posing on a beach in slightly murky weather is magically transformed with three different options making the scene look significantly more enchanting than it really was.
Next up is a feature called “Add Me,” which appears to be an advancement on Best Take from the previous generation. While that feature allowed you to sub out faces from a series of photos to stitch together a flawless image, “Add Me” takes things a step further, by allowing the photographer to join a scene they weren’t actually a part of.
The results look impressive (though we should be skeptical that you can get results that good in the real world until we’ve given it a try), but it does raise serious questions about authenticity. With fundamental changes this easy to make, how can we ever trust that a photo we see on social media is real again?
As our own Managing Editor Philip Michaels wrote when Magic Editor was first introduced last year: “Whenever you're able to move subjects around in a photo without anyone being none the wiser, you're tinkering with reality in a way that should set off alarm bells.”
Yes, it’s nothing that can’t be done by a skilled Photoshopper, but by lowering the skills required to the point that anyone can edit pictures so freely, it has the potential to turn a niche pastime into a mainstream one. “And that's the worrisome thing about Magic Editor,” concluded Michaels in the piece above. “It simplifies photo editing for everyone, not just people who plan to use it for benign purposes.”
Moving away from AI, there are two more notable things from the now-removed teaser videos. The first is that the Pixel 9 is labeled as having a “durable design”, suggesting it may be less susceptible to bumps and drops than previous models. Second, the ads mention “7 years of Pixel Drops” which suggests that Google’s long-term commitment to software updates first introduced with the Pixel 8 will survive to another generation.
The Pixel 9 family should be fully revealed very soon indeed. Google scheduled a surprise event for August 13 and has been teasing the phones this week. It would be very surprising indeed if they weren’t revealed alongside the Pixel Watch 3 in just 17 days’ time.
