Unlike its competitors, Google Pics will let users make written prompts to create images, or have them upload images as a starting point for editing

MANILA, Philippines – Google on Tuesday, September 1, launched a combined image creation and editing tool for Google Workspace and premium users of the company’s suite of tools.

The new offering, Google Pics, is built on its prior Nano Banana offering and will be available as a standalone product as well as becoming part of the company’s Workspace suite, starting with Slides and Docs, and eventually, Drive.

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Unlike competitors such as Photoshop, Canva or Adobe Express, Pics will let users make written prompts to create images, or have them upload images as a starting point for editing.

One feature being touted is object segmentation, which lets users isolate an object and transform it without altering other portions of the image. According to Google, “You can input text comments on specific areas to request targeted changes and execute multiple edits at once.”

Further, Google Pics is a collaborative tool, allowing multiple users to edit the same thing at once, It also generates multiple options based on a prompt, so users can take an option built by the AI and run with that iteration or try something new with a different generated option.

Nano Banana was previously in the news following its incorporation into Google Earth. This addition was walked back a few days after launch, after people noted the potential for Nano Banana to make deepfakes of Google Earth images, an unintended use case for the AI tool. Hopefully, this application of the AI image-generation will fare better.

Google Pics is rolling out to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers alongside most Workspace business customers. Users can check the Google Pics website for more information on this offering and its availability. – Rappler.com