Ultra HDR-ify your old memories with this new Google Photos tool

Summary

A new Google Photos update for Android is introducing the ability to add an Ultra HDR effect to your existing photos.
The feature is rolling out via a server-side update, with version 7.24.0.747539053 of Google Photos required to be downloaded and installed on your device.
Ultra HDR is an image format that can improve the overall picture quality of your photos.

Google is pushing out a new update to its popular cloud-based Photos service on Android, which introduces the ability to add an Ultra HDR effect to any existing photo in your library. This Ultra HDR effect can be adjusted via an intensity slider within the editing section of Google Photos, and it replaces the existing standard ‘HDR effect’ tool found within the app.

As per Android Authority (via @greyishere on Telegram) the feature is reportedly appearing for some users upon updating to the latest version 7.24.0.747539053 of the Google Photos app. That being said, not everyone has received the update quite yet, as the feature appears to be rolling out in part via a server-side update on Google’s end.

Google Photos

Google Photos is a cloud-centric digital gallery application that provides sorting and search options, editing tools, and 15GB of free starting storage.

Developer: Google
Subscription cost: Free

What is Ultra HDR?

Ultra HDR is a digital format that improves image colors, highlights, and shadows

Pocket-lint / Google

While the under-the-hood details surrounding Ultra HDR and its implementation are rather technical, the main thing to note is that, as an image format, it provides a superior picture when compared to non-Ultra HDR images.

According to Google, “the Ultra HDR image format lets images store more information about the intensity of light, resulting in more detailed highlights and shadows and more intense colors.”

Conceptually similar to the HDR tech employed in video content ( HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, etc.), the end result of Ultra HDR photography is a more vivid and visually pleasing picture across the board. Landscapes appear more true-to-life, colors pop on screen, and there’s more separation between darker and lighter parts of a given image.

On Android, Google natively supports the Ultra HDR image format.

On Android, Google natively supports the Ultra HDR image format — the company introduced both capture and display support in 2023’s Android 14 platform release. Newer flagship handsets, including the Google Pixel 9 series, can shoot photos in Ultra HDR out of the box via the Pixel Camera app.

You can share an Ultra HDR image with a non-Ultra HDR-compatible device, but you won’t be able to enjoy the enhanced details and picture quality unless your gadget supports Ultra HDR at both the platform level, and the hardware display panel level.

What is Ultra HDR? Everything you need to know about the new imaging format

Google tries to take photography into a whole new era with Ultra HDR. Here’s everything you need to know about the new image format.

How do I apply Ultra HDR to my existing photos?

Pocket-lint / Google

For the time being, Google’s new Ultra HDR editing tool appears to be available exclusively on Android-based devices — it’s unclear if and when the feature will arrive on Apple’s iOS and iPadOS platforms.

If you do own an Android phone or tablet, you can upgrade your existing photos with an Ultra HDR effect by following these steps:

Ensure that you’re running Google Photos version 7.24.0.747539053 or newer.
Launch Google Photos.
Select an image from your gallery.
Tap on the Edit button near the bottom of the screen.
Scroll over to the Adjust tab.
Tap on Ultra HDR.
From here, you can adjust the intensity of the effect using the slider tool.
When you’re happy with the result, tap on Done.

It should be noted that the rollout of Google Photos’ Ultra HDR editing tool appears to be at least partially reliant on a server-side update. This means that even if you’re running version 7.24.0.747539053 of the app, the option might not show up for you right away.