Google Drive update to automatically enhance scanned documents starting Jan 2025: All about the new feature

Tech giant Google has announced a useful update for its Google Drive mobile app users, set to roll out in early January 2025. The update introduces an automatic editing feature for the app’s built-in scanner, making it easier for users to capture and enhance digital versions of important documents, such as bills or identification papers.

Currently, Google Drive users have the option to scan documents using their mobile devices, but editing these scans requires manually adjusting filters and levels. The new auto-filter feature will eliminate the need for these manual adjustments. With the update, Google Drive will automatically enhance scanned images, providing clearer, brighter versions of documents with minimal user input.

To use the feature, users simply need to click on the "+ New" tab located at the bottom-right of the screen, select the "Scan" option, and grant the app access to their camera. Once the document is scanned, a sparkle icon will appear in the preview mode, indicating the auto-enhancer tool is ready to be used. The tool will automatically improve the scanned image by adjusting white balance, removing shadows, enhancing contrast, sharpening details, and improving lighting.

Google has confirmed that this update will be available to all users of Google Drive, including those with free personal accounts. The company is expected to release the feature for Android devices on January 6, 2025.

This update aims to simplify document scanning and enhance the user experience, making it easier for individuals to store clear and readable digital copies of important paperwork directly within Google Drive.

Meanwhile, Google has introduced its newest generative AI experiment, called Whisk, which is designed to revolutionise the creative workflow by enabling users to create images from prompts derived from existing images.

Unlike conventional image generation tools that require text-based descriptions, Whisk allows users to simply drag and drop images to represent the subject, scene, and style, remixing them to produce original visuals, according to Google’s blog post.

The tool is powered by Google's Gemini model, which automatically creates a detailed caption based on the uploaded images. These captions are then fed into Google’s Imagen 3, the company’s newest image generation model. Whisk’s method focuses on capturing the essence of the subject rather than replicating it exactly.