Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

TL;DR

Google Photos is starting to roll out a new “Ultra HDR” editing option that lets users convert regular photos into Ultra HDR after capture.

The feature is reportedly appearing in version 7.24.0.747539053 for some users via a server-side update.

Ultra HDR images render richer colors and brightness levels on devices with HDR displays.

Google Photos has been working on an “Ultra HDR” editing feature for a while now. We first spotted signs of the feature in the app last September, but at the time, the option wasn’t functional, and it wasn’t clear what it was supposed to do. Still, we had a hunch it was tied to the Ultra HDR file format Google introduced with Android 14.

Ultra HDR allows for capturing and displaying photos with a wider range of light and color. The result is more vibrant, lifelike images, especially noticeable on devices with high dynamic range (HDR) displays. But Ultra HDR is also backward-compatible, meaning it can still display normally on older, non-HDR devices. It does this by packing both SDR and HDR versions of the image into a single file.

Now it looks like Google Photos is rolling out the ability to convert standard photos into Ultra HDR after they’ve been taken. The feature seems to have started appearing for some users.

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