{"id":204801,"date":"2025-12-28T09:03:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T09:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/204801\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T09:03:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T09:03:18","slug":"i-test-smartphones-for-a-living-and-the-best-new-feature-of-the-year-is-now-on-every-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/204801\/","title":{"rendered":"I test smartphones for a living \u2014 and the best new feature of the year is now on every phone"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s not a surprise that AI features continued to be a big focus amongst phone makers in 2025. Even though Apple Intelligence<\/a> was practically a no-show, new Galaxy AI<\/a> and Google AI<\/a> features added even more utility to their respective flagship models. However, the best smartphone feature I\u2019ve tested all year is actually available on just about every phone.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m referring to Ask Photos<\/a>, which was an exclusive feature to Pixel 10<\/a> phones \u2014 but eventually rolled out as part of a standard feature with the Google Photos app<\/a>. That means whether you’re team Android or team iPhone, you have access to this incredibly helpful feature. Really, it showcases the true power of what artificial intelligence can do by saving me time and frustration. Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

Cleaner background for product shots<\/p>\n

\n

\"Ask\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

I test a bunch of different gadgets on Tom\u2019s Guide, like the best robotic litter boxes<\/a>, so I\u2019m constantly taking photos of them. One of the challenges I have is that sometimes my home\u2019s messy, but Ask Photos lets me change the backgrounds of my photos to make them look way more professional.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Image 1 of 2<\/p>\n

\"Ask(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Ask(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)<\/p>\n

Take the Petlibro Smart Granary Feeder<\/a> I captured above in my kitchen. I can point out several things that make it unpleasant, like the furniture to the left, the crooked baseboard heater cover, and the cable wire snaking to the side. With Ask Photos in Google<\/a> Photos, I can simply put it on a totally different background.<\/p>\n

I gave it the prompt to put it in a cleaner kitchen setting, and as you can see from the before and after shots above, it\u2019s now way more pleasant looking. While replacing backgrounds isn\u2019t new, it\u2019s really about how AI is delivering contextual results \u2014 as opposed to the old way of me manually doing it.<\/p>\n

I can dress appropriately<\/p>\n

\n

\"Ask\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

Swapping backgrounds is easy. What\u2019s hard is changing a small portion of the shot to something else, but Ask Photos has no trouble at all doing exactly this. If you look at the selfie I captured with my friend Eric Landskroner over at News 12 NJ during a recent tech check segment we recorded, I didn\u2019t have time to throw on a blazer.<\/p>\n

Image 1 of 2<\/p>\n

\"Ask(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Ask(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)<\/p>\n

Using Ask Photos on my Galaxy Z Flip 7<\/a>, though, I started off by selecting myself in the photo so that it knows to change my shirt into a blazer \u2014 and not Eric. The end result looks pretty convincing in my opinion, as it also adds the shoulder pads to better match the way I\u2019m folding the phone.<\/p>\n

Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.<\/p>\n

Doing this manually is almost impossible, not to mention time consuming. With one quick prompt, it delivered a realistic photo worthy of me sharing on social.<\/p>\n

No fuss people remover<\/p>\n

\n

\"Ask\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

AI-assisted editing tools like Google\u2019s Magic Eraser and Apple\u2019s Clean Up are great at removing unwanted subjects in photos, which then use generative AI to mask those affected areas as realistically as possible. Ask Photos streamlines this process way more than those other tools because I just type a prompt and that\u2019s it, instead of constantly using a selection tool to choose what I want taken out.<\/p>\n

Image 1 of 2<\/p>\n

\"Ask(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Ask(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)<\/p>\n

You can see from the before and after photos, Ask Photos perfectly identifies all the people in the frame and deletes them. What I do like is that I\u2019m given a couple of different options to choose from, because each option may have some odd quirks to them. Most people will probably overlook it, but I can tell when AI\u2019s being used.<\/p>\n

Bottom Line<\/p>\n

\n

\"Google\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)<\/p>\n

I can go on and on with other examples of why Ask Photos is my favorite smartphone feature. But at the end of the day, it\u2019s a tool that works effectively and saves me time. Honestly, I can\u2019t think of how else Google could improve this aside from copying and transforming it into a video editing feature. Now that would be a big challenge, so I\u2019m eager to see what\u2019s in store for 2026.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"Google\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow Tom’s Guide on Google News<\/a> and add us as a preferred source<\/a> to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Today’s best Apple iPhone 17 Pro deals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s not a surprise that AI features continued to be a big focus amongst phone makers in 2025.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[342,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-204801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}