Launched back in 2024, the Pixel Studio app has now joined the graveyard of apps Google has left in its wake, per a report over at Android Authority. The search giant has been slowly dismantling it in recent updates, and the latest, version 2.7, will write a finish to the AI image generation app that was marred by controversy over its ability to generate questionable content.
As the name implies, Pixel Studio was exclusive to Google’s proprietary phones, starting with the Pixel 9 generation. It was a very capable app — arguably too capable at times — with the ability to edit images so that they were nearly indistinguishable from real photographs (a scenario that was likely responsible in part for Google developing tech allowing its Photos app to identify AI content). Subsequent to the 2.7 update, users who launch the app will be directed to Google’s main AI platform, Gemini, which now includes many similar AI-powered image generation tools thanks to the integration of Nano Banana.
Pixel Studio gave users the ability to generate images from text prompts, and it also had the capacity to alter existing photos to, for instance, remove unwanted elements from the background, adjust lighting, or change the style to match the aesthetic of your favorite anime or video game. It’s a familiar toolset now, but back in 2024, it was still novel. Studio performed both tasks remarkably well, generating images and edits that looked like the real thing, or as though they had never been retouched.
Studio also let you create stickers that you could deploy in other apps or drop into text messages to annoy and amuse your friends. That functionality disappeared as far back as the 2.2 update, however. Subsequent updates have stripped out virtually all of the major functionality, leaving the current iteration as a shell of itself (which directs you to use Gemini for your AI imagery needs). While the Android Authority story says you can still access previous creations, you should grab anything you want to save quickly, as there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to launch the app after future updates.
While Google hasn’t made an explicit statement as to why it’s discontinuing Pixel Studio, the writing has been on the wall for some time. Beyond the troubling issues that allowed users to generate images that defied Google’s own safety guidelines, the company has made it evident that it’s committed to unifying its AI tools within the Gemini platform (which has the advantage of being cross-device and cross-platform).
Most of Pixel Studio’s functionality already exists within Gemini, including generating images from text and editing existing images. The heavy overlap means Google would’ve had to continue to update and support Studio on Pixel phones despite Gemini also being readily available. It also would’ve been inconsistent with the steady emphasis on assistants over apps that Google has been pushing throughout the Android ecosystem. In the late going, Pixel Studio was basically just a thin UI wrapper over Google’s core models anyway, so it makes sense that the company would want to skip a step and expose the models directly or as a quick-access AI assistant.
Leave a Reply