TL;DR
- A teardown of Google Photos for Android has revealed a video presets feature.
- Four video presets are available, offering automatic tools for trimming, slow motion, zoom, and tracking.
- The details come after we first spotted the feature, known as “Spotlights,” earlier this month.
We first discovered evidence earlier this month that Google Photos could get a “Spotlights” feature to automatically trim videos and more. It hasn’t taken long, but we now have a much better idea of what to expect.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
We dug into version 6.97 of Google Photos for Android and discovered that this “Spotlights” feature is now called “Presets” and offers four predefined options for videos. These video presets are effectively one-tap editing tools and consist of the following options.
- Basic Cut — Trimming to the key moment and enhancing colors.
- Slow Mo — Applies a slow-motion effect to the selected area.
- Zoom — Automatically zoom in and out of the video in the selected area.
- Track — Automatically tracks and zooms in on the person in the video.
We were able to activate these video presets with flags, and were subsequently prompted to install 3MB of editing tools. The presets can be found by navigating to the desired video, and then tapping Edit > Presets (between “Video” and “Crop”).
You can also adjust the duration of the effect using a slider tool. So if you want the slow-motion effect to last a little longer, you can adjust the slider accordingly. It’s also worth noting that you can’t export a video that uses all four presets, topping out at the Basic Cut option plus one of the other three presets. We’re not sure if this will change when video presets are available.
In any event, we hope these options come to Google Photos soon, as they could make some basic video edits much easier. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the platform gets more handy video editing tools like these in the future.
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