Google Photos testing premium editing features for Google One members !!

Color pop those pics while you still can.

Google Photos is one of Android's most popular apps, but it was only a matter of time before Google started looking for ways to turn the storage hog into a money-making machine. A new teardown of Photos 5.18 reveals that Google is thinking about limiting certain editing features to Google One members, making a paid membership the only way to access them.

New strings inside the app include prompts like "Get extra editing features with a Google One membership" and "Unlock this feature and more with a Google One membership." What's more, it looks like some people are already running into this paywall in the wild. The Color Pop filter, which was previously available for everyone, seems to be part of a test limiting its usage to paid members.

It's unclear at this time exactly which features and/or filters will be placed behind the paywall. Version 5.18 of Google Photos also includes mentions of new photo processing options including Dynamic, HDR, and Vivid, as well as new filters that might let users adjust the look of the sky with Afterglow, Airy, Ember, Luminous, Radiant, and Stormy options. Hopefully if Google does end up rolling out paid features more widely, they'll be new ones rather than ones that were previously free.

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We saw the launch of a new photo print subscription last month, and Google been working on ways to make Google One memberships more attractive to consumers, such as offering a free VPN service. Google currently lets users store unlimited high-quality photos and videos in the cloud, so it makes sense that the company is trying to find ways to help offset the costs. Let's just hope that it can afford to continue keeping the essential cloud storage aspects of Photos free for those who rely on it.

Google Photos 5.18 is available now on APK Mirror, or you can wait to update through the Play Store.

Source: AndroidPolice