What is it and how to use it on your Pixel phone?

Google has taken smartphone photography to its absolute smart limits. The philosophy off-late has been to embrace the imperfections in amateur photos and videos that people shoot every day and use AI to fix these imperfections. Google accomplishes these through tools like Audio Magic Eraser in Google Photos on the Pixel 8 series, letting users take videos in suboptimal, noisy conditions and use the power of AI to remove all unwanted noise. But what is Audio Magic Eraser, and how can you use it on your Pixel smartphone? Let’s find out!

The Audio Magic Eraser on Google Photos comes quite close to what it sounds like it is doing. With this feature, Google Photos separates the various audio tracks in your video using advanced machine-learning models and lets you manipulate their volume. You can “erase” audio from your videos, and the result will almost feel like magic.

Audio Magic Eraser can identify different sound streams, such as people talking in the background, stray music playing, or wind blowing through. It then displays these sound streams as distinct layers. You can now control these layers individually, letting you reduce distracting noises and have your video sound the way you want it to.

Google Photos broadly classifies sound into these streams:

• Speech
• Crowd
• Nature
• Noise
• Wind
• Music

You can then decrease the volume of these streams individually.

Here is a sample of what you can achieve with Audio Magic Eraser.

In the above original video, you can hear the falconer’s instructions. The eagle is also audible, but you don’t get a clear, uninterrupted stream because of the overlap.

In the edited video above, the speech stream has been erased through Google Photos’ Magic Audio Eraser. You can barely hear the falconer’s instructions anymore. The eagle’s sounds are sharply in focus now. You can hear some artifacts if you pay close attention. But given that the edit was done within a few seconds at the hands of a non-professional editor, the results are truly impressive.

How to use Google Photos Audio Magic Eraser

To use Audio Magic Eraser on Google Photos, follow these steps:

• On your Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, open Google Photos.
• Select the video that you want to edit.
• Tap Edit.
• Scroll sideways to the Audio tab and click on Audio Eraser.
• Google Photos will take a bit to identify the various audio streams within your video.
• On certain videos, your phone will let you select Auto to adjust the audio for you automatically.
• On most videos, your phone will let you select a sound source and manually adjust the sound by sliding on the slider. Click on Done when you have reached your desired reduction of that particular sound stream.
• Once you have your desired output, tap the Save a copy button in the bottom right.

Is Audio Magic Eraser available on older Pixel phones?

No, Audio Magic Eraser is not available on older Pixel phones yet. Google has chosen to keep the feature exclusive to the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, for the time being at least. You don’t need to record the video on the Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro but merely edit it in the Google Photos app on either of those phones.

The company has not yet indicated that the feature will be rolled out to older Pixels. But in the past, Google has kept several features as timed exclusives for new Pixels. One can hope the company opens the feature to older Pixel devices.

Is Audio Magic Eraser coming to non-Pixel smartphones?

Google has not indicated any intentions of opening up the Audio Magic Eraser function to non-Pixel smartphones.

However, since this is a Google Photos feature, there is a chance that the feature could be rolled out to non-Pixel smartphones through the Google One subscription. Google has rolled out several Pixel-exclusive features to non-Pixel smartphones through this monetization mechanism in the past, and there is a possibility that the same may also happen with Audio Magic Eraser, eventually. However, don’t hold your breath on it.