Google Photo Changer tries to save you from accidental edits

Google Photos and its editor have been in a near-constant state of change for the past few years, and it doesn’t look like things are still settling down. The latest tweak changes how you interact with some of the app’s most powerful features toolsand while it may seem like a bit of a regression in some ways, it’s intended to make the editor less frustrating to use.

a new post on the help pagesGoogle says it’s updating how users access editing tools on Android. Functions like Move, Delete and Reimagine will not be active when you tap, circle or scratch directly on the image. Instead, you’ll have to open the editor and select them from the tools menu or search for them by name.

According to Google, the change aims to reduce accidental edits and improve performance. Anyone who accidentally launches the editing tool will probably see this through. At the same time, it eliminates one of the more direct and intuitive ways to make quick edits.

Google’s Photo editor has passed a test major redesign and even showed signs of partial regression during the last 12 months. This latest update isn’t a dramatic overhaul, but it’s the kind of change you’ll notice quickly if you rely on gesture-based shortcuts. Whether or not it feels like an improvement will depend on how often you make edits you didn’t want in the first place.