How to Stabilize Videos for Free with Google Photos App

While recording a video, it is pretty normal if you don’t end up having a stabilized clip due to camera shakes or movements on an unstable and unpaved road. This is where the Google stabilizer video editing feature comes into play. You can stabilize a video with the Google Photos app that has a built-in video stabilizer and other editing tools to give a finishing touch to your media files before they are shared online or with family, friends, and/or colleagues.

In this article, we will show you how to use Google Photos to stabilize video. In addition, you will also learn about one of the most trusted and efficient third-party tools to stabilize the clips if Google video stabilizer fails to produce quality output.

Part 1: What is Google Photos and How Does It Work?

Google Photos is an app that can be obtained from Play Store or App Store to be installed on an Android-based smartphone or iPhone or iPad respectively.

The program can store photos and videos from your phone, and ensures that those media files are well-backed up so they can be recovered easily if/when lost due to some mishaps. Furthermore, the tool even lets you edit, customize, and share your photos and videos with ease.

1. History and Current Policies

Earlier, Google Photos used to offer unlimited storage to the users where they can save as many photos as they want, as long as the images were saved in ‘high-quality’ resolution. However, from June 01, 2021, Google changed its policies of using the app, and now the tool offers limited storage. If more space is needed, the users must subscribe to a paid plan.

2. Accessibility

Google Photos can be accessed from a web browser, Google Drive desktop program, and smartphone app. While you can make only minor changes to the videos such as editing date, time, and location when accessing Google Photos via a web browser, the smartphone app allows you to edit the clips comparatively more sophisticatedly.

3. Deletion

The files that are stored in Google Photos remain there for an indefinite duration, of course until the entire space is completely consumed. When you delete something, it is moved to the Trash and stays there for another 60 days, after which it is automatically deleted from the Cloud forever.

Related Topics: How to Stabilize Shaky Videos – 7 Top Tools 2024

Part 2: How to Stabilize Videos with Google Photos on Android and iPhone?

Google Photos is available for both Android and iPhone smartphones, and as explained earlier, the app can be downloaded from Play Store and App Store respectively. Using the built-in Google stabilizer video editor of the Photos app on both platforms is almost identical and extremely easy.

You can learn how to work with Google video stabilizer to stabilize a video by following the steps that are given below:

Step 1: Locate and Open the Source Video in Google Photos

Download and install Google Photos on your smartphone (Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ is used here for illustrations). Launch the app, tap Library from the bottom-right corner of the interface, and tap to open the source video that you want to stabilize with Google video stabilizer.

Step 2: Stabilize the Video

After the video opens in the app and the playback begins, tap Edit from the bottom. On the next screen, ensure that the Video section is selected. Tap the Stabilize icon from the lower-left area of the window, and wait while Google Photos stabilize video.

Step 3: Save the Video

Once the stabilization process is complete, click Save copy from the bottom-right corner to save the modified video as a separate copy, thus leaving the original instance intact.

Related Topics: How to Stabilize a Video in Premiere Pro [2024 Guide]

Part 3: How to Stabilize Videos with Google Photos Online?

Unfortunately, Google Photos doesn’t have many editing options when accessed via a web browser, and therefore, at the time of this writing, you cannot stabilize a video with the tool’s web interface. But if you are using a Windows or Mac computer, you can try some free online video stabilization software, or use Wondershare Filmora video editor to stabilize video with one click.

Wondershare Filmora video editor is available for Windows and Mac platforms, and gives a tough competition to other industry-standard video editing applications like Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere Pro, etc. You can learn how to stabilize a clip with Filmora instead of using Google stabilizer video editor by following the step-by-step instructions that are explained below:

Step 1: Add the Source Video to the Timeline

After downloading and installing Wondershare Filmora on your Mac or Windows computer, launch the program, and then drag or drop the source video that you want to stabilize into the stock. Alternatively, you can directly drag it to the timeline.  

Step 2: Stabilize the Video

Click the video in the timeline and find Video>AI Tools>Stabilization in the property panel on the right side of the interface. Click the button beside Stabilization to activate it. Wait while Filmora video editor stabilizes the video without Google video stabilizer. Click OK when done.

Step 3: Adjust the settings

When the analysis finishes, you can change the smooth level by dragging the slider for Smooth Level. You can preview the result in the Player until satisfying.  Then click Export to export the stabilized clip without even using Google stabilizer video.

Part 4: How to Use Google Photos to Edit Video?

Google Photos doesn’t only work as a Google video stabilizer app but it also enables you to edit your media clips much more professionally. Some post-production tasks that you can perform while using Google Photos include:

1. Trimming

The trimming handles can be seen when you are on the ‘Video’ section after tapping ‘Edit’ in Google Photos after opening the video. You can drag these handles inwards to get rid of the unwanted starting and ending parts of a clip.

2. Cropping

The ‘Crop’ section enables you to crop the videos in a particular aspect ratio that can be selected from the available list, or drag the handles manually to get custom results.

3. Rotating

The ‘Crop’ section also has an option to rotate the video. Each time you tap the ‘Rotate’ icon, the screen rotates 90^o in the counterclockwise direction.

4. Color Correction

The ‘Adjust’ section allows you to adjust the display of a video such as its brightness, contrast, shadows, etc.

5. Filters

You can even add a filter using the presets available in the ‘Filters’ section.

6. Annotations

The ‘Markup’ section enables you to annotate the video. You can either use the ‘Pen’ tool or ‘Highlighter’ to write text on the video or give the screen a different shade respectively.

Depending on the type of modifications you want in your video, you can use Google Photos to get the job done easily and quickly.

Bonus: How to Edit Snapseed Photos?

Conclusion

Google video stabilizer is a built-in tool in Google Photos. Google Photos can be obtained from Play Store or App Store for your Android or iOS smart devices respectively. In addition to stabilizing your videos, Google Photos app also enables you to make other modifications such as trimming, cropping, applying filters, and much more.