What to know

  • Android 16 will introduce AI-powered weather effects that can add realistic rain, snow, and other atmospheric conditions to your photos.
  • The new feature will be part of Google Photos and uses generative AI to create natural-looking weather effects that blend with the original image.
  • Users will be able to choose from multiple weather options and adjust the intensity of the effects to customize their photos.

Google has revealed a creative new feature coming to Android 16 that will let you transform your photos with AI-generated weather effects. The upcoming update to the mobile operating system will include tools that can add rain, snow, fog, and other atmospheric conditions to your images after they've been taken.

The feature, which will be integrated into Google Photos, uses advanced generative AI to analyze your images and apply realistic weather effects that blend naturally with the original scene. The AI considers lighting conditions, perspective, and depth to ensure the added elements look authentic rather than simply overlaid.

According to Google's announcement, you'll be able to select from several weather options including rain, light drizzle, heavy downpour, snow, fog, and sunshine effects. Each option comes with adjustable intensity controls, allowing you to customize how dramatic the weather appears in your photo.

The technology works by understanding the three-dimensional space within your photo. When adding rain, for example, the AI creates droplets that appear to fall at the correct angle and interact with surfaces appropriately. Water accumulation and reflections are generated to match the scene's lighting.

Google demonstrated the feature with several before-and-after examples showing ordinary landscape photos transformed with moody rain effects, sunny beaches enhanced with golden-hour lighting, and urban scenes made more dramatic with fog.

The company emphasized that all processing happens on-device for most modern Pixel phones, though some older devices and other Android phones may use cloud processing for more complex effects.

Privacy advocates have noted that the on-device processing approach helps address potential concerns about photo data being sent to external servers. Google confirmed that when processing occurs on your device, your original photos remain private.

The weather effects feature is expected to roll out with the Android 16 update later this year, with a possible early preview in the beta program. Google indicated that the feature would initially be available on Pixel devices before expanding to other Android phones from manufacturing partners.

This addition continues Google's trend of using AI to enhance photography capabilities on Android devices, following features like Magic Eraser and Best Take that have been popular with users looking to improve their photos without complex editing.

Via: theverge.com