Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google has finally fixed an issue with its Photos app that would strip Ultra HDR information from an image during even the most basic of edits.
- Google Photos Version 6.96.0.663027175 now allows you to crop and rotate an image without worrying about this issue.
- This isn’t the first time Google Photos has had issues with HDR and Ultra HDR, though it’s great to see Google working to address these quirks.
Google introduced Ultra HDR with the Pixel 8 series, though it has since made its way to a growing range of higher-end Android flagships. Ultra HDR works similarly to a JPEG image but adds an embedded HDR gaming map in the metadata. While Google might have been the first to bring us the feature on Android, Google Photos ironically doesn’t play nice with it. At least, until now.
Previously performing photo edits on an Ultra HDR image would strip it of its Ultra HDR technology, but as first spotted by Artem Russakovskii on X, this is no longer the case for basic edits.
You can now perform actions like cropping and rotating without losing Ultra HDR in the process. Artem notes that he’s rocking a Pixel 8 Pro with version 6.95.0.663027175. A quick look at the comments in his post confirms this is working for others as well.
Google has had more than its fair share of issues with HDR photos in its Google Photo app, not just Ultra HDR. In the past HDR images in Google Photos would strip all brightness data that enabled high dynamic range, which led Google to make a workaround where it would duplicate edited HDR photos as copies instead of overwriting the original. Since then, Google has fixed the problem for HDR though it continues to create duplicates.
For its part, Google has previously said (via Android Police) it is aware that the way it handles HDR and Ultra HDR is far from perfect and it said it was working to improve the problem. With this latest update, it seems Google is starting to make good on this promise.
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