Google Photos has been quietly rolling out a new AI-driven movie to many users over the past few days. The new video will show up in your Assistant tab in the app and it titled “Smiles of 2017”. With the hint in the name, you’ve probably guessed that this short video consists of photos of people smiling, be it selfies or other people that you have photographed over the past year.
The video falls under what is commonly referred to as the “auto awesome” features of Google Photos. That is, the app which is driven by Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, will scour your photos to create photos or videos based on the content of your photos.
Not all users of Google Photos are seeing this new “Smiles for 2017” creation nor will everyone for that matter. It depends on the number of smiling people you have in photos over the course of this past year and there is no user interaction that will allow you to trigger the video to be made. Further, if you do meet the criteria for the algorithm to create the video, it could still be several days before you see it.
If you do see the “Smiles for 2017” video pop up in your Assistant tab, you can save the video to your library and keep it for later.
