Google Pics: How to level up your visuals in Docs and Slides
Computerworld ·
Simplicity and convenience are a tough combo to beat. That’s why basic features integrated into the productivity apps we’re already using almost always win out over more capable and complex third-party options, at least when it comes to most mainstream use — and why Google’s latest easily overlooked addition to its Workspace office suite is well worth your while to notice. The addition is called, rather confusingly, Google Pics. (If you ever mix up Google Pics with Google Photos or Google Images, don’t worry: Google Lens can help you sort it out.) Pics, unlike its similarly named Google app contemporaries, is meant to exist primarily within the Google Drive ecosystem as opposed to being its own standalone entity. The easiest way to think about it is as a newly souped-up, superpowered image editor and graphic creator that lives directly within Google Docs and Slides — and, eventually, also within Drive itself. It’s a fuss-free way to let you make new artwork and refine existing images in your documents and presentations, and it’s surprisingly powerful and effective in what it’s able to do. Critically, it’s also both simple and convenient, as an option within any document or deck you’re already working on. All you’ve gotta do is (a) realize it’s there and available to you and (b) learn how to best take advantage of the new powers it affords you. Here’s your start-to-finish guide. Part I: Google Pics for Docs and Slides image editing First things first, to find Pics, you’ll need to either have an individual Google account with a paid Google AI Pro or Ultra subscription or be part of a Google Workspace organization with the Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, or Enterprise Plus plan . Provided you fit the bill, just open up Docs or Slides like you normally would, then click on any image within your document or presentation and look for the “Edit” option beneath it. (Pics is a desktop-specific feature, at least for the moment, so you won’t find it in the Docs and Slides mobile apps.) The “Edit” button beneath an image in Docs or Slides is your entry point to Google Pics editing. JR Raphael / Foundry With Pics in the picture, hovering your mouse over that option should reveal text that says “Edit this image with Pics.” And that’s where the Pics magic begins. (If you don’t see that text, you’re either not on an account where Pics is available or the Pics update just hasn’t rolled out to you quite yet. Google says it’s in the midst of adding it onto all eligible accounts as we speak, so keep checking — it should show up soon.) The Google Pics image editor lets you select and edit specific elements of any image. JR Raphael / Foundry Once you’re inside the Pics editor, you’ll see the system taking a moment to process the image and identify all of its elements. Then, after a few seconds, you’ll be able to hover your mouse over any specific area of the image to see a description of it — and be able to click to edit it in any way you want. You can give Pics instructions for edits to different areas of your image. JR Raphael / Foundry From there, you can click onto any other areas to add instructions for additional edits — all using straightforward, plain-English language just describing what you want to see — then click the “Apply” button at the bottom to bring all your requests into action at the same time. So you might, for instance, ask the system to change the color of one specific element, change the text in another area of an image, and change the background. You can even ask it to translate text within an image into another language, if you want. And you can make up to five requests at once and then handle them all simultaneously. Pics will take a moment to process, with the length of that moment varying based on how many requests you made and how complex the edits within them were. In my experience, the delay is never more than a few to several seconds, but if you for any reason find yourself growing impatient, you can always hit Esc or click the minimize icon (two diagonal arrows facing each other) in the upper-right corner of the Pics interface to go back to your document and get notified when the work is done. Once the processing is finished, you’ll see all your edits applied — and if you’re happy with how they turned out, you can then click “Replace image” to bring the new version of the image into your deck or document. Pics will make all your edits at the same time and give you a single final result. JR Raphael / Foundry Not bad, right? You can also use the plus icon in the box at the bottom of the screen to upload your own photos, which can then be used as reference points or elements within the image you’re working on. Pics lets you upload your own photos to integrate into an image. JR Raphael / Foundry And all of that is still just scratching the surface of what Pics can accomplish. Part II: Google Pics for new Workspace image creation In addition to Pics’ in-project editing prowess, the system boasts some impressive powers for new image generation within the Google Workspace universe. Somewhat oddly, this part of Pics isn’t integrated directly into Docs, Slides, or any other Workspace app. Rather, you have to open it manually by going to pics.new in a browser tab — which is especially head-scratching since both Docs and Slides have a “Generate an image” option within their “Insert” menus. That option opens up a similar but slightly less capable Gemini side panel instead. (Hey, it wouldn’t be a Google product if it didn’t have at least some manner of branding confusion!) Once you get to the Pics generation interface, though, you’ll find yourself facing possibilities both new and familiar. On the surface, what you’re working with generally is a fairly standard Gemini prompt for image generation — the same sort of capability you’d get by opening Gemini directly or interacting with it in any of the approximately 7 gazillion places where Google has squeezed it in as an option. The Pics generation interface looks a lot like any other Gemini prompt on the surface. JR Raphael / Foundry But critically, this image generation interface ties into the Workspace collaboration system. Click the person-shaped sharing icon directly next to your profile picture in the upper-right corner of the screen — or hit Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S, if you’d rather — and you can then work together with other people in real time (though only other Google accounts with Pics access will be able to actively modify an image; if an account doesn’t have full Pics access, it’ll be able to see the ongoing progress but not make any actual changes). Pics’ native Workspace collaboration is a noteworthy superpower. JR Raphael / Foundry This Pics editor also has an added cropping mechanism, at the top of its screen, for easy adjustment of an image’s dimensions — though the tool quite literally does just crop based on what’s already present, without actually changing the image to work well within the new dimensions. That’s a surprising limitation that results in images not always looking right when you try to adjust their sizes. Pics lets you adjust an image’s dimensions but only by cropping — which doesn’t always work well. JR Raphael / Foundry Another interesting element in this interface is Pics’ ability to give you multiple image results to choose from. It happens only when you ask for an edit in the main prompt box at the bottom of the screen — and, somewhat confusingly, only in this Pics interface and not in the version that comes up when you’re editing existing images within Docs and Slides. But given the unpredictability of AI image editing, it’s a sensible way to increase your odds of ending up with something you like. You can choose from different versions of an edit, but only in the Pics interface for creating new images. JR Raphael / Foundry This Pics interface also has a Docs-like “Version history” section — hidden away somewhat within an innocuous downward-facing caret icon next to your image’s name. It’s a handy way to keep track of edits and revert to an earlier version of an image, if such a need ever arises. Docs-style version history is a handy touch in the Pics image generator. JR Raphael / Foundry From here, there’s no way to directly insert an image you create into any document or presentation. Instead, you simply export an image onto your computer for use wherever you want, or use the icon in the upper-right corner of the screen to copy it onto your system clipboard for later pasting. You can also, I discovered, access all of your Pics edits and creations by going to the URL docs.google.com/images — which doesn’t seem to be present in any of the other Workspace app menus, strangely, but is technically there and available if you know how to find it. Pics has a weirdly hidden home page where you can find all your edits and creations. JR Raphael / Foundry All in all, Google Pics is a useful, if somewhat disjointed, addition to the Workspace suite of productivity services. It’d make more sense as a simple feature within Docs and Slides — with both editing and new image creation existing as fully integrated options in those environments and without the befuddling branding that isn’t quite needed in this context. But that’s Google for ya, right? (And if the past is any indication, Pics will probably change names and/or merge into other apps at least 47 times over the next few years.) What ultimately matters is what this technology can accomplish — and for anyone working within Docs and Slides and dealing with images without the luxury of a dedicated art department, it’s a welcome new tool and one well worth getting in the habit of using. Related reading: Try Google Drive Projects for fast, focused AI analysis How to build your own AI agents with Google Workspace Studio A beginner’s guide to Google Gemini Gems Google NotebookLM cheat sheet: Get fast insights into your docs More Google Workspace tips and tutorials