Google testing new UI for its Photos editing features

In the past, we've told you about hidden code in Android apps discovered by Jane Manchun Wong that revealed possible upcoming new features. Her latest discovery posted on her Twitter account (via AndroidPolice) is a new UI for the editor functionality on the Google Photos app. After Wong posted about the UI change, she received a response from an Indonesian Google Photos user (@BangSAT_RIA97) editing a photo he had taken with the Xiaomi Mi 10 5G. His tweet reveals that Google might be testing out the new UI and is sending it to select Android users.

With the new UI, above the cancel button in the lower-left corner and the Save Copy button in the lower right corner are horizontally scrolling lozenges with categories such as "Suggestions," "Crop," "Adjust," "Filters," and more. "Suggestions" tells you what edits the phones' AI recommends that you make. "Filters" brings up a selection of filters that can be applied to a photo, and "Crop" is self-explanatory." The upper carousel shows specific actions that can be taken to improve a photo including Auto, B&W, Color Pop, Blur, and Color focus. Other options like the Exposure and Contrast can be tweaked to improve the look of an image. 

The new UI has not appeared on our Pixel 2 XL running the Android 11 beta, a further sign that the new Google Photos editor UI is merely being tested and is not 100% certain to appear on your Android phone anytime soon.