Do you often see your friends and family posting about their travels, family gatherings, and parties on social media?
i will do it. Vacations have become more frequent, especially lately (suddenly everyone I know is visiting Japan?).
When I recently returned from a trip, I was looking through videos and photos that I wanted to share.
I didn’t want to upload them one by one. It felt uncomfortable. Actually, I wanted to put everything together like a slideshow.
I also didn’t want to get stuck with editing software. I’m sure it’s easy enough, but I wanted something very quick.
This is where my favorite new feature in Google Photos comes in: the Highlight Video tool.
As the name suggests, this is a video full of highlights.
Just specify the keyword and it will do the rest
This is a very quick and useful tool that allows you to put all your videos and photos together in a visually appealing way and post them online.
I guess you could save it for yourself, but in this day and age you’d definitely use this feature on social media. You may even send it to a relative.
First, open Google Photos on your device. Tap the icon that looks like a paintbrush at the bottom of the page, then click create.
Several options will appear. Please click on the one that says highlight video.
now you are in it Create a highlight video menu. You can choose from pre-made templates or choose your content.
Pre-made templates are self-explanatory, but Content selection That’s really what I think is cool. It can include words such as location, type of photo, or person’s face.
If you went to Mexico for a friend’s wedding, you might want to enter the wedding and Mexico tags and click on the faces of the people you want to include.
click previewYou now have a slideshow with all your photos and videos assembled and ready to edit.
It’s incredibly easy and quick to cut your video to only the relevant parts.
It’s casual so don’t expect Adobe Premiere
This is meant to be a quick and easy tool, so don’t expect too many options when it comes to editing. In my opinion, this is something of a double-edged sword.
It’s simple, straightforward, and intuitive. All options make sense when you click on them, so there’s no need to google for tutorials.
On the other hand, you may find that your editing options are limited. If you’re used to editing with more powerful software, you may find the lack of functionality frustrating.
I’m very satisfied with the amount of editing I can do. Not because I think it’s completely comprehensive, but because I only really reach for this tool for casual content.
If I want to create something more detailed and complex, I’ll happily fire up CapCut or DaVinci Resolve.
But for my casual day-to-day use, Google Photos’ highlight video tool easily comes in handy.
Here are a few surprising additions to editing options. I didn’t expect Stabilize to be one of the options.
I tested it with shaky handheld video and got pretty good results. This is a little extra, but a great addition to make your videos look their best.
Can go from great to great with a few minor upgrades
What I wish could have been better is the zoom feature for still photos
While I had fun making silly collages and videos about my dog, there were some caveats to this tool.
No big deal, but I’ll keep these on my Google Photos wishlist for future updates.
The first is how to incorporate still images. When putting together a video, it does a great job of finding faces and choosing the moments to switch between them.
When it comes to a still image, the bottom left corner will zoom slowly by default to preserve movement.
I don’t really care if there are some changes, but it’s always the same.
I found an option to turn off zoom, but it was a little strange that there was nothing between those two options.
My second complaint is the lack of visual editing capabilities.
I was hoping to be able to choose from some stickers, emotes, or simple GIFs to add to my videos, but there’s no option to do so.
You can also add text on top, but that’s about it.
I think this tool would be a lot more fun if there were options for users to add a few more fun features.
With such a cute and fun feature, you can’t be too angry.
why so serious?
This is one of those tools that is totally for fun. It is not used for professional or important purposes.
It’s an easy and fun way to put together photos and videos without creating a typical slideshow.
Since this tool is just for fun, I can see it getting some backlash.
With features like this, it’s easy to criticize Google for not spending more time and effort on what I think is more important.
But that’s not all there is to life. Sometimes, silly and fun features are what bring a smile to the mundane.
So despite my mild criticism of this feature, I can’t help but smile that it exists and creates cute little montages to share your daily life with others.
Easy, fast and accurate if you know where to look
I think I would classify this feature as hidden or secret since it requires a bit of digging to find it.
I don’t think that placing it in the “Create” tab will attract many users. I know I didn’t click on the vaguely named tab with any interest until I decided to go hunting.
I think this is a shame, because the Google Photos Highlight Video tool is a really fun and useful way to easily organize your ever-expanding Google Photos account.
Now that I know it exists, I plan to dig deeper into its fun features in the future.
