Top Android Stories of the Week: Magic Eraser Breaks Google Photos, Google Lens Spotted on Web Search, More

BY Chandraveer Mathur

Published 6 Feb 2022

Android

In case you missed events and exciting news from the world of Android this week, check out this roundup of top stories so you’re all caught up with everything Android.

This week, most news in the world of Android was related to Google. The company’s Magic Eraser feature on Google Photos ruined the user experience on Pixel 6 units worldwide. The search engine’s Lens feature could soon make its way from mobile to web Search. Rumor has it that the company could also end unlimited free WhatsApp backups to Google Drive, based on lines of code and messages spotted on an in-development build of the popular messaging app.

Magic Eraser Causes Google Photos to Crash on Pixel 6; Fix Issued

This week, several Pixel 6 users around the world saw Google Photos crash when they tried using the Magic Eraser feature. The tool allows Pixel 6 users to conveniently remove any distracting elements like lamposts and people from their photos in a few simple steps. The feature takes advantage of Google’s Tensor chip in the latest Pixel phones. The crashing issue was widely reported. It stemmed from a server-side update to the Google Photos app.

In a comment posted on Reddit, the search giant acknowledged the issue and announced that a fix would be rolled out. If you are facing the problem, make sure you have auto-updates for the Photos app turned on. You can do so by opening the Play Store, selecting Google Photos, and ensuring “Enable Auto-Update” is checked in the hamburger menu (three dots) on the top right-hand side corner.

Google Lens Could Soon Make Its Way to Desktop Search

Google Lens is one of the most helpful search tools the search giant offers on mobile devices. This week, the company was spotted testing Lens on Google Search for the web. The feature has been tested on Chrome for years, using a Chrome flag. One user reportedly spotted the new Google Lens icon in the Search bar on Google.com beside the voice search button.

Google Lens helps users identify objects and know more about them based on users’ pictures of the thing. The service on the web also works using Google’s cloud-based neural networks to analyze images. Like the mobile app, it also allows you to examine a region of the uploaded image. Google could roll out Lens on the web to a broader audience to offer a consistent Seach experience across all platforms like mobile and desktop.

Unlimited WhatsApp Backups to Google Drive Could End Soon

Google and WhatsApp have a long-standing agreement to allow unlimited and free WhatsApp backups that don’t eat into a Google user’s free 15GB cloud storage quota. However, code in a developing version of WhatsApp suggests this could end soon. WhatsApp backups to Google Drive could eat into the free 15GB limit the service provides.

The code reportedly had other alert messages warning users if their storage was full or about to become full. Code for another dialog box could allow WhatsApp users to deselect some types of messages from cloud backups to save storage space. Presently, there is no official confirmation from Google Drive or WhatsApp that unlimited free Drive backups will end. The report from WABetaInfo speculated that WhatsApp could still offer free Drive backups, but they would not be unlimited.