Google Photos introduces new feature for turning images into videos with descriptive guidance.

Google is enhancing the experience for Photos users by giving them greater control over the app’s generative AI photo-to-video feature. With the latest update, users can now utilize text prompts for video creation, enabling them to specify the desired movement, style, or effects when transforming still images into dynamic videos.

This new text prompt functionality complements the existing “Subtle Movement” and “I’m feeling lucky” options, which previously did not allow for personalized descriptions to influence the output. Google has indicated that Photos will offer prompt suggestions for quick video inspiration, and users can edit these prompts to refine the resulting video creations.

However, this feature is limited to users aged 18 and older, specifically for the image-to-video tool in Photos. In contrast, text prompts have been available in Gemini for users aged 13 and up. The introduction of descriptive prompts aligns Photos’ capabilities more closely with competing AI editors, which have faced scrutiny for misuse in generating inappropriate content.

It’s important to note that generative AI features in Google Photos are not universally available, and functionality may differ by region. For details on current limitations, users can refer to Google’s support page.

Additionally, the update allows users to automatically include audio in every video created with the image-to-video feature, making it easier to produce share-ready content without further editing. Another enhancement is the new Google Photos picker for Gmail, which streamlines the process of sharing images and videos from albums and collections via email, allowing for the selection of multiple items and searching for specific photos and album names.