Category Archives: Google

Google fixes flaws in the Chrome browser.

Google has released seven security updates for Chrome to address critical vulnerabilities that could be exploited by cyber attackers. The updates fix bugs that could have allowed cyber attackers to take control of affected devices. Google said that it may restrict access to bug details and links until a majority of users are updated with a fix.

Google will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third-party library that other projects similarly depend on but haven't yet fixed.

Google recommends that users of the Google Chrome browser and other browsers built on the Chromium engine promptly install and activate the latest update. This critical security update aims to address an exploit (CVE-2023-6345) that is confirmed to be active in the wild, emphasizing the importance of keeping browsers up to date for enhanced security.

In the advisory, Google has highlighted fixes that were contributed by external researchers.

High CVE-2023-6348: Type Confusion in Spellcheck Reported by Mark Brand of Google Project Zero on 2023-10-10

High CVE-2023-6347: Use after free in Mojo. Reported by Leecraso and Guang Gong of the 360 Vulnerability Research Institute on 2023-10-21

High CVE-2023-6346: Use after free in WebAudio. Reported by Huang Xilin of Ant Group Light-Year Security Lab on November 9, 2023

High CVE-2023-6350: Out of bounds memory access in libavif Reported by Fudan University on 2023-11-13

High CVE-2023-6351: Use after free in libavif. Reported by Fudan University on 2023-11-13

High CVE-2023-6345: Integer overflow in Skia Reported by Benot Sevens and Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group on 2023-11-24

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Google Urges Immediate Action: Security Update Released Amid Active Chrome Exploit Threat - NDTV

1. Google begins process of deleting inactive Gmail accounts  ABC News
2. Google is deleting inactive accounts. Here's what that means  NPR
3. Make Sure Your Google Accounts Are Active, or They Might Be Deleted  The New York Times

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Google begins process of deleting inactive Gmail accounts - ABC News

Judge James Donato is overseeing Epic v. Google, a case that could determine the future of the Android app store but testimony in this case may have more repercussions for Google too.

On Friday, Judge Donato vowed to investigate Google for intentionally and systematically suppressing evidence, calling the companys conduct a frontal assault on the fair administration of justice. We were there in the courtroom for his explanation.

I am going to get to the bottom of who is responsible, he said, adding he would pursue these issues on my own, outside of this trial.

Testimony in the Epic v. Google trial and in a parallel DOJ antitrust suit against Google in Washington, DC revealed that Google automatically deleted chat messages between employees, and that employees all the way up to CEO Sundar Pichai intentionally used that to make certain conversations disappear. Pichai, and many other employees, also testified they did not change the auto-delete setting even after they were made aware of their legal obligation to preserve evidence.

And Pichai, among other employees, admitted that they marked documents as legally privileged just to keep them out of other peoples hands.

On November 14th, Pichai told the court that he relied on his legal and compliance teams to instruct him properly, particularly Alphabet chief legal officer Kent Walker and so Judge Donato hauled Walker into court two days later.

But the judge was not satisfied with Walkers testimony, either, accusing him of tap-dancing around.

Walker said he never attempted to audit whether employees were actually retaining evidence it was left up to individual employees to decide which communications might be relevant to a legal case, and more than one employee testified in court they had the wrong idea of what was relevant.

The most serious and disturbing evidence I have ever seen in my decade on the bench

Today, Judge Donato said it was deeply troubling to me as a judicial officer of the United States that Google acted this way, calling it the most serious and disturbing evidence I have ever seen in my decade on the bench with respect to a party intentionally suppressing relevant evidence.

This conduct is a frontal assault on the fair administration of justice. It undercuts due process. It calls into question just resolution of legal disputes. It is antithetical to our system, said Judge Donato.

And yet, the judge decided today that he would not issue a mandatory inference instruction one that would tell the jury they should proceed with the understanding that Google destroyed evidence that could have been detrimental to its case.

Instead, there will be a permissive jury instruction the jury may infer that the missing evidence might have helped Epic and hurt Google.

The best course of action is for the jury itself to decide whether it will make an inference. I am not going to constrain the jurys discretion by making that inference for them, he said.

Even though it would be well within bounds to issue a mandatory inference instruction, said Judge Donato, I can pursue these issues on my own, outside of this trial, in subsequent trials.

I am going to get to the bottom of who is responsible, he said. That is going to be separate and apart from anything that happens here, but that day is coming.

Google declined to comment to The Verge on Judge Donatos statements. Walker testified in court that the auto-delete setting is now off by default for all Google employees.

Today, Epic and Google rested their case in Epic v. Google. Well be returning on December 11th for closing arguments and jury instructions.

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Federal judge vows to investigate Google for intentionally destroying chats - The Verge

November has been a big month for RCS the mobile messaging protocol championed by Google and now, the company is capping it off with the announcement of a milestone and some festive new features. First, the number: according to Google, over 1 billion monthly active users are using RCS in Google Messages. Thats huge, considering support was scarce just a handful of years ago, though not entirely surprising since its been the default messaging service on Android phones for a few years now.

As for the new messaging features, a couple of them might sound familiar to iOS users. Theres a new feature that ties into your Google account to create a Contact Poster-like profile with your name and photo. Google is adding something called Photomoji, which lets you cut people out of your photos and use the photos to react to messages as you would with an emoji.

Apple offers something similar in iOS 17, though you have to turn your photo cutouts into stickers to add them to iMessage conversations. Based on an extremely scientific study of, like, five of my friends, this isnt catching on very quickly.

Google Messages will also let you attach an emoji when you send a voice message, which Google calls a mood. Thats a nice way to help someone get the tenor of your message at a glance. Emoji shared in group chats or used as reactions will sometimes include an animation, too. And in a little nod to the whole green bubble / blue bubble situation, Google Messages will now let you change the color of the chat bubbles on each of your conversations.

I spoke to Android messaging VP and GM Sanaz Ahari about the new features and where RCS is generally, which of course, means asking about Apple. Theres good reason to be excited about RCS on the iPhone because as Ahari aptly puts it group chats are just really, really broken today between Android and iOS. Apples commitment to supporting the RCS universal profile 2.0 means that image and video sharing across platforms will get much better, but Ahari acknowledges that the 2.0 spec doesnt include end-to-end encryption.

We are actively working with the GSMA and Apple is a member of the GSMA to evolve the spec to include not only end-to-end encryption, but also a lot of features that arent in the RCS spec that were working on adding back to the spec. Threaded replies, read receipts, and reactions are a few of those features that are unlikely to be supported for iPhone users as the standard exists today. Overall, what we hope is that the modern messaging features and end-to-end encryption will be a reality cross-platform.

Thats all a ways off, but in the meantime, Googles new messaging features will be trickling out to RCS users on Android phones. Todays feature drop also includes some handy smart home integrations with Wear OS so you can set your Google Home status, trigger a group of lights, or start a routine from your watch. It all rolls out starting today, with the new messaging features debuting first in open beta.

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Google adds Photomoji, profiles, and custom colors to RCS in Messages - The Verge

You don't need Apple or Samsung to make payments with your phone. You can use Google Pay even on a budget Android phone. Be careful, though, because Google Pay uses a different technology than Apple to communicate with your bank and it isn't accepted at many US retailers. The good news is that most major stores accept it. We compiled this list of the major US retailers who accept Google Pay to take the guesswork out of it.

Google Pay is a newcomer to the digital payment landscape. Samsung Pay and Apple Pay rolled out in 2015, and Google struggled to catch up. First, there was Android Pay. Then there was Google Wallet, which didn't have a payment system built in. Then, in 2020, Google Pay was launched. Better late than never.

Google Pay works similarly to Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. Tap your phone on an NFC terminal, and with the happy ding of a bell, you've made a transaction. It's behind the scenes that you see the differences. For starters, Google Pay stores your card on the Google servers. Your card number and your bank authentication are used to make the payment. It is the digital copy of tapping your NFC-compatible debit card. Apple Pay doesn't work the same.

Apple creates a secure token to represent your card. This token looks like a debit card number, although it is randomly generated. Apple requests a Device Access Number (DAN) from your bank, which it links to this token. When you tap Apple Pay, the merchant and Apple only see the token, not your card number. Apple has no idea what your actual card number is. That remains between you and your bank.

This makes Apple Pay more secure. Google's servers are secure and have yet to be hacked, so your bank information should be safe there.

Samsung Pay works similarly to Google Pay, but it has a leg up on Apple and Google. It can use NFC and MST. NFC allows you to tap your phone or card to make a payment. MST, Magnetic Secure Transmission, is the slightly older method of swiping the magnetic strip on your bank card along a receiver in the terminal. Samsung Pay allows your phone to spoof this and trick the terminal into thinking a card was swiped, thus making Samsung Pay available almost everywhere.

Any place that accepts Apple Pay also accepts Google Pay. It seems that the Apple Pay sticker you see on shop doors is a generic term for mobile payments, much like how we call all tissues Kleenex. This is because both systems rely on NFC. If you can tap your card, you can use a mobile payment.

Not all major retailers in the US accept mobile payments. Many smaller retailers are behind on the times, mainly for financial reasons. Transaction fees on a bank-supplied NFC terminal can take a big slice of a small business' revenue. Here are the major retailers that accept Google Pay.

Almost all the grocery chains in the US accept Google Pay.

While most US restaurants and fast food chains accept Google Pay, a few franchises may not. Ask a staff member if you're unsure. The following accept Google Pay:

Gas stations are one of those categories of retailers that are taking a long time to catch up. Switching pumps to include NFC payments is expensive, so most gas stations require you to visit the cashier to use Google Pay. The following companies accept Google Pay at many of their pumps (not all):

Exxon Mobile only accepts Apple Pay with the Speedpass+ app, but not Google Pay. This may change in the future.

The big cinema chains accept Google Pay.

Most home improvement chains in the United States do not accept Google Pay. We're not sure why this is, but it probably comes down to cost. A few accept it, including the following:

Most major retailers accept Google Pay. The ones that don't are usually hardware stores or smaller businesses. The following major retailers do not accept any form of mobile payment, including Google Pay:

Kroger and Walmart offer payment apps similar to Apple Pay. Download Kroger Pay or the Walmart app from the App Store to use your phone to make payments at these stores.

Google Pay is a fast and easy way to make payments. Tap your phone, and you're set. Google Pay lives in your Google Wallet, where you can also store your loyalty cards, and, in some states, your ID in Google Wallet. You still need to pay for your lumber in cash, however.

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These major retailers accept Google Pay in the US - Android Police

Lou Paskalis, AJL Advisory AJL Advisory

The most recent study from Adalytics is perhaps the most alarming one yet, as it reveals that the Google Search Partner (GSP) platform appears to have no controls in place to ensure users of the service do not see their ads running on all manner of unsuitable sites.

Adalytics found ads appearing next to pornography and on sites on the federal governments SDN list, which contains tens of thousandsof companies, organizations and individuals who have been identified as posing a threat to US national security and foreign and economic policy, according to Wikipedia.

One would reasonably expect that, at a minimum, Google would filter porn sites and those listed by the government as threats to national security out of the core GSP offering. But apparently no such effort has been made, judging by the hundreds of screenshots included in the Adalytics study. This latest lapse of trust raises questions about Googles stewardship of the dollars that advertisers invest in its services.

Google very clearly states in its terms of service that it does not reveal the vendors in its network, which should at least give advertisers pause about using the service as an extension of their search campaigns beyond Google-owned properties.

The problem, however, is that GSP is set up as an opt-out on each search campaign that a marketer deploys. And based on the findings from the Adalytics study, it appears that many marketers including a significant number of US government entities such as the FBI, US Treasury and US Army were unaware they need to opt out to protect themselves from problematic ad placements.

Its worse if youuse Googles Performance Max, a goal-based tool that allows performance advertisers to access all Google Ads inventoryacross a single campaign. Its designed to complement keyword-based search campaigns with access to Googles other media channels like YouTube, Display, Discovery, Gmail and Maps.

The problem is that Google offers PMax customers no way to opt out of GSP. At best, this is an egregious oversight, particularly for a solution that Google is pushing so aggressively.

By setting up the GSP platform and PMax like this, Google has exposed any search clients who fail to opt out of the service in their search campaigns or who use PMax at all to significant compliance and reputational risk.

The companys response to concerns over this risk is to characterize GSP as a minuscule part of its overall search volume, which is not a viable response to a regulator. And that defense certainly wont fly in the court of public opinion, where it takes just a single screenshot to ignite public backlash and potential boycotts.

I know many people who work at Google, and they are almost universally high-integrity individuals who work hard on behalf of their customers. GSP and PMax, as they are currently set up, are not representative of the kind of solutions that Ive come to expect from Google and the leaders I know there. Both offerings are a poor reflection on a company that has enjoyed a very good reputation among media vendors for a long time. This GSP scandal is not their finest hour, and characterizing it as minuscule in scale does not mitigate the enormous reputational risk it could create for any marketer unwise enough to use it.

The good news is that marketers can easily eliminate this risk entirely if theyre careful.

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Every search campaign deployed on Google is set by default to include Google Search Partners. TURN IT OFF when you are building a search campaign on Google. And, unfortunately, the forced inclusion of GSP in PMax means that marketers shouldnt use that tool either until Google gives marketers the option to exclude GSP from campaigns placed on PMax.

Unfortunately, as I understand it, you have to opt out separately for each individual campaign you mount and for each country that a campaign will run in. Thats actually more work than it might sound like for major multinational marketers who routinely deploy campaigns of a near global magnitude.

However, the risk of having your brand appear as search ads in some of the vilest environments you can imagine justifies any amount of effort to avoid that outcome.

But what frustrates me most about this situation is how easily it can be remedied in a way that will benefit all parties. By taking these three simple steps, Google can make the GSP network safe for all advertisers.

1. GSP should be an opt-in service, not one that requires the marketer to opt out. Google Search and PMax campaigns should not run on GSP unless an advertiser willfully opts in.

2. GSP should offer category-level exclusion options for marketers so that, at a minimum, they can opt out of running ads on categories of sites they deem to be unsuitable (e.g., pornography and sites that appear on the federal governments SDN lists).

3. GSP should filter vendors on the service for overall brand safety and suitability BEFORE allowing them to become part of the GSP network.

Frankly, these steps should have been taken when Google Search Partners was originally set up. The fact that they werent raises questions that need to be answered.

For now, though, I would prefer to see Google fix the problem by taking the actions outlined above and, in so doing, make GSP a safe tool for those who wish to take advantage of it without exposing their brands to reputational risk.

The rest is here:

Google Search Partners Is Unsafe, But It Can Be Fixed - AdExchanger

LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Google (GOOGL.O) has called on Britains antitrust regulator to take action against Microsoft (MSFT.O), claiming its business practices had left rivals at a significant disadvantage, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

Microsoft and Amazon (AMZN.O) have faced mounting scrutiny around the world over their dominance of the cloud computing industry, with regulators in Britain, the European Union, and the U.S. probing their market power.

The CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) launched an investigation into Britains cloud computing industry in October, following a referral from media regulator Ofcom which highlighted Amazon and Microsofts dominance of the market.

In 2022, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft's Azure had a combined 70-80% share of Britain's public cloud infrastructure services market, Ofcom said. Googles cloud division was their closest competitor, at around 5-10%.

In a letter submitted to the CMA, Google said Microsofts licensing practices unfairly discouraged customers from using competitor services, even as a secondary provider alongside Azure.

With Microsofts licensing restrictions in particular, UK customers are left with no economically reasonable alternative but to use Azure as their cloud services provider, even if they prefer the prices, quality, security, innovations, and features of rivals, Google said in its letter to the CMA.

Such practices directly harmed customers, and were the only significant barrier to competition in Britains cloud computing market, the company said.

The CMA declined to comment.

Microsoft last year updated its licensing rules to address such concerns and promote competition, though the changes did not satisfy rivals.

A Microsoft spokesperson said the company had worked with independent cloud providers to address concerns and provide opportunity and that more than 100 worldwide had taken advantage of the changes.

"As the latest independent data shows, competition between cloud hyperscalers remains healthy. In the second quarter of 2023 Microsoft and Google made equally small gains on AWS, which continues to remain the global market leader by a significant margin," the Microsoft spokesperson said.

Speaking to Reuters, Google Cloud Vice President Amit Zavery criticised Microsofts practices, and said his company was committed to a multi-cloud approach, in which customers could easily move between providers depending on their needs.

"A lot of our software and cloud services interoperate, and can run on AWS or on Azure as well, so you're not restricted," he said. "If you don't fix this, eventually you will have fewer cloud providers, and then innovation will not really happen, and investments will start shrinking."

At issue was Microsoft's decision to update the terms for when customers wanted to use their Windows or other software licenses in the cloud, effectively resulting in higher costs if they used Google or AWS instead of Microsoft's Azure.

Asked why Amazon, which boasts a larger share of the cloud market than Microsoft, did not pose a similarly anticompetitive risk, Zavery said AWS consumers were not facing the same restrictions.

There are some issues, in terms of cloud interoperability, but we can fix that. That's a discussion between providers, which is much understood, and customers are forcing that conversation, he said.

The problem we run into with Microsoft is that there's no technical issue, but you have licensing restrictions which means we are now being prevented from competing.

Google made six recommendations to the CMA, including forcing Microsoft to improve interoperability for customers using Azure and alongside other cloud services, and banning it from withholding security updates from those that switch.

Reporting by Martin Coulter in London; additional reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in New York; editing by Kenneth Li, Lincoln Feast and Edwina Gibbs

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Exclusive: Google pushes for antitrust action against Microsoft in UK ... - Reuters.com

December 1, 2023, 5:00 AM UTC

Alphabet Inc. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai likes to tell the world that Google is an AI-first company in large part because its search results benefit from clever artificial intelligence algorithms. But hes also grappling with AI tools being deployed on the other side, as more people use ChatGPT, Midjourney and others to flood the web with machine-generated text and images.

The most worrying examples of fake material getting through Googles net are images, which can powerfully twist emotions and stick in peoples minds.

This week, Wharton professor Ethan Mollick noted on X that photorealistic AI images were now topping Googles search results for Israel Kamakawiwoole, the Hawaiian singer who died in 1997, instead of real photos. AI-generated images from Gaza showing bloodied, abandoned infants recently went viral, playing havoc with Googles ranking algorithms and creating a warped view of the Israeli conflict. And Google recently showcased an AI-made selfie of Chinas historically anonymous Tank Man.

Fake AI images of Israel Kamakawiwoole laughing and playing the guitar lead Googles search results for the Hawaiian singer. Source: Screengrab on Nov. 30, 2023

Googles battle to discern real from fake threatens to blur the lines for billions of people seeking facts, and puts its own role as the worlds organizer of information in uncertain territory.

To illustrate how convincing such images can be, take the quiz below to see if you can tell genuine images of historic figures apart from AI-generated ones.

1 of 10

Which one is a real photograph of Muhammad Ali/Cassius Clay: A or B?

2 of 10

Which one is a real photograph of Maya Angelou: A or B?

3 of 10

Which one is an image of a real painting of Joan of Arc: A or B?

4 of 10

Which one is an image of a real painting of Napoleon Bonaparte: A or B?

5 of 10

Which one is a real photograph of Charlie Chaplin: A or B?

6 of 10

Which one is a real photograph of Winston Churchill: A or B?

7 of 10

Which one is a real photograph of Abraham Lincoln: A or B?

8 of 10

Which one is a real photograph of Marilyn Monroe: A or B?

9 of 10

Which one is a real photograph of Eleanor Roosevelt: A or B?

10 of 10

Which one is a real photograph of Margaret Thatcher: A or B?

Google admits that its grappling with the problem. Given the scale of the open web its possible that our systems might not always select the best images regardless of how those images are produced, AI-generated or not, a Google spokesman said. He added that the best way to thwart misleading information was to rank reliable content at the top of its results.

Yet plenty of AI knockoffs have already infiltrated those top results, distorting peoples view of reality.

In September, Googles algorithms inadvertently made an AI-generated selfie its lead image for searches of Tank Man, the Chinese man who stood before tanks leaving Tiananmen Square in 1989. Google took that image down, but for a moment in time the image had rewritten history: Tank Man now had a face, and he was middle-aged.

In reality, Tank Man was never identified and some reports described him as being a 19-year-old student.

Kamakawiwoole, similarly, was best known for his cover of the song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, playing the ukulele and not smiling very often in photos. Yet Google now paints a different picture of the singer: a bubbly, extroverted man known for playing the guitar. (At the time of writing, the faked photos still topped Googles results.)

Google also put AI-generated imitations at the top of its search results for painters Edward Hopper and Johannes Vermeer, the latter showing a glossy, cartoonish version of The Girl With a Pearl Earring.

One hallmark of AI-generated images is how slick they are; even historic figures sport Hollywood grins and look like theyre in a Vogue cover shoot. The result is an idealized version of real life more reflective of what people think history should look like than the gritty reality of what it actually does.

For Google, this is just the latest battle in a lengthy war. For at least a decade it has grappled with the rise of SEO optimization, in which websites stuff themselves with keywords to rank higher in search results, making it harder to trust those results.

Little wonder that Google has recently focused on adding features like metadata analysis to help people determine where images come from and how credible they are. It is, in other words, putting the onus on us to spot the fakes.

If the worlds best-resourced AI company is still struggling to distinguish fake from real over the next two to three years, we wont necessarily become better online sleuths. Well more likely be forced to adopt a more adversarial view of the Internet, mistrusting most things by default.

George Orwell sounds increasingly prescient in his book 1984, in which he described a world where facts were fudged and rewritten in order to suit anothers purpose. And so it was with every class of recorded fact, great or small. Everything faded away into a shadow-world in which, finally, even the date of the year had become uncertain.

That uncertainty will become a problem for us as much as for Google if its capabilities dont improve.

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Google Can't Catch All the AI Images. Can You? - Bloomberg

With Google making Profiles in Messages official yesterday, one thing youll notice is how those images will replace any contact photos you have manually set.

Profiles let you specify what name and image other users see in a conversation. If the person youre talking to has set up a Profile, that is the photo youll see inside Google Messages going forward. The company confirmed to us yesterday that this will replace any previously set photo, like those that you have manually added through the Google Contacts app.

However, Google will not override the contact name you have set.

Some might not like this behavior as it overrides something you purposefully curated. For comparison, iMessage will ask before changing a profile picture and you have the ability to reject the update. That said, other messaging services dont provide this option.

One argument in defense is that most people dont meticulously maintain contact photos, with many conversations just seeing initials as the image, and that Profiles will be a vast improvement. Google said this new feature addresses the problem of receiving messages from phone numbers not saved in your contacts.

The announcement also pointed to Profiles being particularly useful in group chats so that you know who all the other participants in the group are.

Meanwhile, the color you set for Custom Bubbles appears for both you and the recipient, which is how it works on other services, like Meta/Facebook Messenger.

Profiles started rolling out in mid-November, and is not yet widely available for beta users.

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New Google Messages Profile images will replace contact photos - 9to5Google

One of the big new features Google is preparing for the Pixel 8 Pro is Video Boost, which promises to greatly improve video quality through post-processing on Googles servers. While theres no firm release date for that just yet, the Google Photos app is setting the foundation.

About APK Insight: In this APK Insight post, weve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), were able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. Well try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how theyll look in case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.

In the most recent versions of the Google Photos app for Android (versions 6.61 and 6.63), there are quite a few strings that show Google is working to bring Video Boost to Pixel 8 Pro owners.

From the initial strings, which appeared almost a month ago in version 6.61, we get a little bit of insight into how Video Boost will work on Pixel 8 Pro. Some of the notices and dialog that will show in the app say:

To boost your videos, turn on backup in settings, or back up this individual video

To use Video Boost, you need to back up this video, which requires signing in with your Google Account

Waiting to back up video

Backing up for Video Boost. This may take some time. A notification will be sent when your video is ready.

Boosting video quality. This may take some time. A notification will be sent when your video is ready.

This may take some time depending on video length, internet speed, and battery status. A notification will be sent when your video is ready.

Boosting your video wont affect your phones battery life or performance, but it may take some time. A notification will be sent when your video is ready.

From that, we can gather a couple of things.

For one, Google is by no means being shy about the fact that Video Boost takes time. Something else that seems rather obvious, but is good to have confirmed, is that users will indeed need a Google account to use this feature. That makes sense, as it requires videos to be backed up to Google Photos.

Beyond that, the newer Google Photos v6.63, which is rolling out this week, adds a few more lines about Video Boost ahead of its debut on Pixel 8 Pro.

Specifically, this version tells us that Photos will allow users to export a boosted video as an AVC or HEVC file for local playback on the device and that this results in the best quality.

Download video for best quality

AVC

Export

HEVC

Export as

Preparing video

Video exported

We also found strings that point to Google Photos giving users the option to select which video they want to keep as the main option in their library, as well as an option to keep best videos only.

Presumably, this all refers mainly to library management, as Video Boost creates two copies of each video shot with the feature enabled.

Export this video only

Keep best videos only

Keep this video only

Set as main video

Show all videos (%d)

Show best videos only (%d)

Google originally said that this feature was due by the end of the year, so were right on track.

Thanks to JEB Decompiler, from which some APK Insight teardowns benefit.

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Google Photos reveals how Pixel 8 Pro 'Video Boost' feature will ... - 9to5Google