Remix is the silliest new Google Photos feature, but I can't stop using it

Google releases an update for its Photos app every now and then with new front-facing features, but most of them come and go without me ever noticing they exist.

Google Photos silently added 15 new Remix templates, along with a wider rollout of several other Create tab features across more regions.

While some don't pique my interest, other Google Photos additions earn a permanent spot in how I actually use my phone, and Remix wasn't the one I expected to join the list.

I tried a handful of new templates on photos of myself and my daughter, then roped in some extended family for good measure over the following couple of days. None of it was serious, which made me keep going more than I anticipated.

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By  Sumukh Rao

Remix isn't new, but the latest update gave it 15 new reasons to open

From four styles to a much bigger library

I first used the feature last year in July, but it only had four options: 3D animation, anime, sketch, and comic book.

All of them were powered by Google's Imagen model, which allowed me to pick a photo from the gallery, choose a style, and get a transformed version in a few seconds.

The latest update added 15 new templates on top of the original set, expanding the playful corner of the Google Photos app. That's a bigger jump, and it's worth going back and trying some of them myself.

I feel the quality of generations has improved a lot, since Google has had time to improve its models over the past year.

The washing machine, fish eye, and microwave were the ones that got me

Three templates, way more fun than they had any right to be

Straight out of the new batch, three stuck with me specifically, including the washing machine, fish eye, and microwave.

Each one warps a photo through its own bizarre visual logic, and running them on pictures of me and my daughter produced results neither of us expected, which was the most fun part.

The AI-generated photos are genuinely funny in a way most AI photo tools don't manage, since the point is embracing how strange the output looks.

Most Remix templates go for stylish or artistic; I've tried all of them, but these three committed fully to being weird instead, and it worked better than a subtle filter.

There's a red carpet template and, for me, it was cringe, but some might like it.

Google's rollout notes also call out whimsical birthday cards and photo booth-style shots as two more of the fifteen, but I haven't gotten around to trying them. I will probably reserve those for special occasions.

If you don't like the look, you can regenerate the image. It changes the look while the overall template remains the same.

These will never pass as real photos, and that's kind of the point

AI-generated look, changed faces, zero pretense of realism

None of these results could pass as an authentic photo anywhere, and I mean that literally, not as a minor caveat.

You can tell it's AI-generated from a mile away, and Remix also alters some of the facial expressions and features in the process, not only the background, lighting, or color grading around the subject.

I won't be using any of these images as an actual profile picture or anywhere that asks for a real, unaltered photo.

That's completely fine, because entertainment is the point of this tool. It's plain fun to mess around with your looks, especially with people around.

Getting to any of this took less time than I expected

Two more templates worth knowing about

Reaching the Remix tool on Google Photos is simple. Launch the app and tap the Create tab at the bottom, pick a template that you want to play around with, and add a photo from your gallery. Tap Generate and wait for the magic to happen.

Google Photos has been shipping a steady stream of small, but genuinely useful upgrades lately, and this update added another layer to that convenience without burying it in settings.

One restriction is worth flagging before you look for any of these specifically. The new templates are limited to users 18 and older, and only available in select countries.

Google Photos' Remix feature is also available on the iPhone, giving even more users the chance to make themselves look silly. It lives in the Google Photos app, just as it does on Android.

My extended family got roped into this too

I showed a few of these features to my extended family, and it turned into its own small event that lasted longer than I want to admit.

Watching everyone's reaction to seeing themselves run through the red carpet moments was funnier than the templates themselves, or the washing machine for that matter.

Plenty of Google Photos tools sit ignored in the Create tab until curiosity finally finds something worth sticking to, and Remix is exactly that kind of feature for me.

It's silly, it's not going anywhere useful, and I've opened it more in the past two days than most Google Photos tools I've needed for real work.

I've even set the washing machine image as my WhatsApp profile picture. This says a lot more about the appeal of pure silliness than it does about the feature itself.