Updates
Windows Photos new update brings background blur, motion support and more
Microsoft has dispatched a new update to its Windows Photos, for Windows Insiders in the canary and dev channels which brings a handful of new features and fixes including background blur, search, Samsung and Google Motion Photo support, content search for OneDrive-backed photos, and more.
With Windows 11 things have changed a lot because Windows Photos hadn’t always been the go-to for editing or manipulating photos – only for viewing photos, and that’s set by default. With this new update, Windows Insiders will be able to access a slew of new features that elevate the homegrown app a level or two.
To get these new features, update your Photos app to version number 2023.11090.13001.0 or higher. You can check the details of these features below.
Background Blur
Make the subject of your photo stand out by opening a photo in Edit mode and selecting the new Background Blur option. The Photos app automatically finds the background in the photo, and with a single click, instantly highlights your subject and blurs out the background. You can also customize the effect by adjusting the Blur Intensity or use the Brush Tool to modify the areas being blurred.
Content search for OneDrive-backed photos
For photos stored in OneDrive (home or personal) accounts, you can now quickly find the photo you’re looking for based on the content of the photo. To use the new content search feature, make sure you’re signed into your Microsoft account, navigate to the OneDrive Personal section, and in the search bar at the top, enter what you’re looking for, for example:
- Car
- Beach
- Birthday
- Vacation
Known issue: If you are brand new to OneDrive or have not previously used photo search on OneDrive, search may not work right away as OneDrive processes the photos. If you’re not seeing any search results, check back in a few hours and try again.
Location search
You can also now find photos based on the location they were taken. This feature is available to all photos in your collection including those stored in file systems, OneDrive, and iCloud.
Samsung and Google Motion Photo support
You can now view the video portion of Motion Photos captured on Samsung and Google devices.
Other fixes and improvements
- Based on community feedback, we updated our up-sampling logic so that images no longer appear pixelated when zooming in by a large factor.
- Touch support for slideshow is now available. Swipe left and right to easily navigate to the next photo in your slideshow.
- Edit and Create Video options are now easily accessible at the top of the gallery view.
- The previous issue where an app restart was required for iCloud photos to start showing is fixed. Once you have enabled photo syncing in your iCloud for Windows app, you will see photos stored on iCloud start showing up.
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