Google Photos tests Redact tool offering mosaic and blur options for sensitive areas

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TL;DR

After our APK teardown last month revealed a new Redact tool buried in Google Photos’ code, we’ve now got it working in v7.89.

The tool sits in the Markup section next to Pen, Highlighter, and Text, and offers three redaction styles: Mosaic, Mosaic Light, and a noise-based Blur.

The feature is still in development with no public rollout in sight, but this hands-on demo shows Google has gone from a broken button to a functional feature.

Google Photos’ Redact tool has moved from a string buried in the code to something we could actually tap, and we’ve got the demo to prove it. We first flagged this feature last month during an APK teardown of Google Photos v7.85, when a code string promised to “redact sensitive areas of your photos.” Back then, the button crashed the app the moment it was tapped, leaving the actual redaction method a mystery. Google Photos has since moved on to version 7.89, and we managed to enable it ahead of its release to put it through its paces.

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