While Google’s Camera app has had “face retouching” toggles for a while, the Photos app itself has mostly stayed away from letting you tweak specific facial features. That’s about to change. Android Authority did a deep dive into the code of the latest app version (7.56) has revealed a fully functional “Touch Up” mode that lets you refine the details of a face long after the photo was taken.
A New “Touch Up” Mode Is Coming to Google Photos
Deep inside the latest update, there is a hidden menu called Touch Up. When you tap it for the first time, the app asks you to download a small 16MB file. That little package is the AI brain that powers the new tools.
Once it’s running, you get a clean interface with six specific sliders: Smooth, Under Eyes, Irises, Teeth, Eyebrows, and Lips.
It isn’t just a generic “beauty filter” that blurs the whole image. The cool part is that the AI detects individual faces. If you have a group shot, you can tap on one person to whiten their teeth or smooth their skin without weirdly affecting the person standing next to them. Right now, it works on up to six faces per photo; any more than that, and the app will tell you it’s hit the limit.
Why This Matters: Smarter Editing, More Control, and What’s Next
Google Photos is already the default gallery for over a billion people, but until now, if you wanted to fix dark circles or brighten a smile, you probably had to jump into a different app like Snapseed or Facetune. By baking these tools right in, Google is making the app a true one-stop shop.
This is a big win for regular users. We all have those great group photos where one person looks perfect and the other is caught in bad lighting. The ability to edit per person solves that problem instantly. It’s less about fake, heavy-handed filters and more about subtle, natural polish.
Google hasn’t officially announced when this is dropping, but since the feature is already working in the test versions, it’s likely coming very soon – maybe in the next “Feature Drop.” It’s a clear sign that Google wants your photo gallery to be smarter, doing the heavy lifting so you don’t have to be a Photoshop pro just to look your best.
