“Google is coming with a feature to make videos sharper, possibly for the Pixel 8”

Google appears to be working on a Video Unblur feature for its Photos app, according to code in that app. The feature should make it possible to sharpen videos. The feature may be intended for the Pixel 8 series. Google previously introduced a Photo Unblur feature for Pixel 7 phones.

9to5Google hit a hidden interface for the Video Unblur feature in the Google Photos app. The website managed to force-enable this UI. However, the feature, which is currently still in development, does not appear to have any noticeable effect yet. When released, the feature would allow users to sharpen blurry videos, presumably using machine learning. The feature should become available under ‘tools’ when users edit a video in the Photos app.

The tech website speculates that the feature will be available exclusively for Pixel phones, although this is not specifically stated in the code. The feature may then be introduced with the release of Google’s Pixel 8 series, renders of which recently appeared. The tech giant previously introduced a Photo Unblur feature. It was released together with the Pixel 7 series and uses the Tensor G2 SoC in those phones to sharpen photos. Photo Unblur is still available exclusively for the Pixel 7 series. Video Unblur would make the same feature available for videos, probably also exclusively on Pixels.

Google is also said to be working on new overlay effects for videos. Indications of this were also found in the Photos app. There are fourteen such effects hidden in the app, although they are not yet usable either. The effects will appear under “overlays” upon release when users edit a video in Google Photos.

Video Unblur in Google Photos. Source: 9to5Google