7 wild photos the Pixel 9’s Reimagine feature can produce

Key findings

• The Pixel 9 camera and photo app includes a new Reimagine feature for editing photos.
• Reimagine is technically part of the Magic Editor and uses AI to regenerate a section of a photo based on a prompt.
• Reimagine is great for replacing the background, but it has limitations.

The Pixel 9 is a good smartphone, and also a bridgehead for Google’s big ideas about how artificial intelligence could transform mobile operating systems. But if you’re not into Gemini, you’ll find AI on a Pixel 9 for the first time in the Camera and Photos apps. Photography has been a highlight of Google’s Pixel phones, and the growing interest in generative AI has made photo editing a big part of the package, too.

This year, Google’s new smartphones are pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable in AI image generation. Or at least they have. Early testers of the Pixel 9 reported surprisingly lax restrictions on the kinds of things “Reimagine,” the new image-generating feature in Google’s Magic Editor, can add to an image, including things like car crashes, drug paraphernalia, and dead bodies. Since then, Google has mostly gotten things under control, removing the most obvious ways to make something offensive.

That’s not to say Reimagine isn’t worth playing around with, though. It’s hard to predict what Google’s image editing feature will create based on your prompt, and that’s the source of most of the frustration and joy you’ll experience when using Reimagine. Here are some of the most interesting things I was able to create.

1 From a normal wall to a mossy, stone

Reimagine is characterized by backgrounds

Once you’re in the Magic Editor, you can select the background of a photo with your finger, or let Google guess what you want to edit with a tap. From there, you just type in the input you want—in my case, “moss-covered stone wall”—and let Reimagine do its work. The results of this first attempt were a pretty good illustration of what Google’s new feature seems to excel at: background swapping.

Google’s in-app instructions for Reimagine say that the feature “works best with backgrounds and objects rather than people,” and in my experience, it’s particularly good for changing the texture or material of an existing object or surface in your photo. This makes sense in a way, as Google doesn’t need to adjust the existing position of things in your photo, it simply replaces an existing shape with something else. These would also be the simpler edits that can be made in traditional photo editing software.

2 Flowers, teeth, glass tubes and syringes

Reimagine can still produce questionable material

I’ve never been able to use Reimagine to create anything as dramatic or gruesome as previous authors have, but it can still produce some questionable images.

I was able to make a photo of white flowers red by simply selecting the petals and typing “red.” Using the “teeth” prompt, I was able to turn the flower vase into a jar full of teeth, but it didn’t produce flowers with teeth as petals, as I originally wanted.

Using “glass tube with mouthpiece” or “syringes” as keywords produced less believable results, especially with the syringes, where Reimagine struggled with the details. But these are also a pretty good example of how to point out things – anything related to drug use – that could become problematic in the wrong context.

3 A legally independent giant lizard in Godzilla style

AI-generated objects are fun, but obviously fake

If you’re looking to fake some Sasquatch images, you might be disappointed with what your Pixel 9 can add to a harmless landscape or cityscape. In my experience, the objects and entities that Reimagine generates entirely tend to look digital, rubbery, and obviously not real.

Reimagine works best with prompts that are nouns and adjectives.

You’re not going to convince anyone if, like me, you want to add a “giant Godzilla-style lizard” to your photo. It just won’t look real. Another problem is that your methods for selecting a section of your photo will default to replacing existing objects (like a tree) instead of just letting you add whatever you want wherever you want. That in itself is a limitation to work around.

4 A green river, a witch’s house and a bloody ceiling

Reimagine is not as flexible as you might think

What’s odd about using Reimagine, especially after reading stories about how potentially dangerous it is, is its rough edges. This tool makes dramatic photo editing remarkably easy compared to other software, but it’s still a bit annoying to use. I had to fight to get Reimagine to produce anything in the middle of the alley in the photos above.

After some trial and error, I was still able to get the Pixel 9 to create what looks like a bloody leaf, but I can’t say it was particularly fun. For every impressively realistic lighting trick Reimagine was able to create (check out that green river), I struggled to select the right part of a photo or get Reimagine to accept even the most normal prompts. In fact, I can’t get my Pixel 9 to add a werewolf to a photo.

5 A giant butterfly cocoon hanging from a crane

Reimagine’s ability to imitate light is impressive

I was often impressed by how Reimagine on the Pixel 9 attempted to recreate the lighting of a scene. A “giant butterfly cocoon” hanging from a crane would normally have cast more shadows on me as a photographer, but there’s no denying that my Pixel 9 was able to determine where the sun was and adjust the shadows on the cocoon accordingly.

Of course, the image doesn’t quite make sense. It’s not clear how the cocoon is attached to the crane or what positions it horizontally since I shot it from below. Still, I think Reimagine is most fun when it can create these kinds of surreal images and make them a little bit more realistic.

6 A giant falcon swooping down on a water tower

I’m not sure if this is useful

Many of Google’s photography features have memories at their core – capturing memories, preserving memories, and giving you the tools to make sure the memories you save are viewed the way you want to remember them.

Magic Editor’s more traditional features, which let you reframe and reposition elements of your photo, make sense. Not everyone takes a perfect photo, but Magic Editor makes it easier to create one after the fact.

Reimagine takes it a step further by completely changing components of your experience. It doesn’t just change the quality of light or your location, it changes your entire location. This doesn’t quite fit the memory concept in my eyes. I’ll never need to add a “giant golden hawk heading toward a water tower” to a photo. So while Reimagine is fun to use, and it’s actually pretty impressive, I’m not sure it feels as useful as some of Google’s other AI features.

7 A creepy doll and a couch made of grass

The processing does not have to go that far

The Pixel 9 has a lot of benefits that have nothing to do with Reimagine. After using the feature, I don’t think the Pixel 9’s ability to edit images with Reimagine will be what people will enjoy most about using a Pixel. Who needs to edit a sofa to look like it’s made of grass, or add a creepy doll to a photo like I did above?

Who wants to modify a sofa to look like it’s made out of grass or add a creepy doll to a photo like I did above?

What’s troubling is that Google seems to have no qualms about giving people the ability to dramatically edit images, and without an obvious watermark indicating that AI was involved. I can’t imagine the company will pull back on that effort for next year’s phone.

Redesign is just the beginning

I’m not sure Reimagine is the latest craze—similar claims were made when Magic Editor was introduced on the Pixel 8—but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the companies developing these features obviously have a different set of standards than the average person, even if they’re fun. I don’t think most people need these features built into their Photos app, and I don’t think they’d feel comfortable knowing other people could make these changes.

Reimagine is an impressive magic trick that can certainly be abused, but compared to Google’s other photography features, it doesn’t seem like it stands out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I use Reimagine on a Pixel 9 and above?

Currently, Reimagine is only available in the Magic Editor on Google’s new Pixel 9 family of phones. The company hasn’t made it clear if it plans to bring it to older Pixels, but it certainly seems possible. Here’s how to use Reimagine:

1. Open the gallery in Camera app or a photo in Photos app.
2. Tap Edit.
3. Tap the Magic Editor logo in the lower left corner.
4. Select the area you want to edit by Circle it with your finger or tap it.
5. Make any necessary adjustments to your selection and then tap the Re-introduce Button.
6. Enter your command promptand then press Enter.
7. Select one of the changes generated by Google and save a copy or create more.