Use Video Boost on your Pixel phone
You can take videos on your Pixel phone in higher quality and with better lighting, colors, and details. This feature is available on Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, Pixel 10 Pro Fold, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold.
Important: To use this feature:
- Locked Folder and Storage Saver must be turned off.
- Backup for Google Photos must be turned on for your Google Account.
To backup and process videos, Video Boost requires Google Photos. Learn how to get started with Google Photos.
Learn how to use Video Boost
Step 1: Turn on Video Boost & record a video- Open your Google Camera app Google Camera.
- If you're in Photo mode , switch to Video mode Open video mode.
- At the bottom left, tap Video Settings or swipe up.
- Turn on Video Boost .
- To change settings:
- To adjust the resolution up to 8K (Ultra HD), under "Resolution," turn on 8K. 8K isn’t available on Pixel 8 Pro, or Pixel Fold devices.
Tip: 8K only supports up to 30fps. - To adjust frames per second (FPS), under "Frames/sec" turn on 24, 30, or 60.
- To adjust the resolution up to 8K (Ultra HD), under "Resolution," turn on 8K. 8K isn’t available on Pixel 8 Pro, or Pixel Fold devices.
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To confirm that Video Boost is turned on, in the upper left corner of the viewfinder check for this icon .
- To change settings:
- Record a video.
- Video Boost supports zoom from 0.5x to 20x. You can adjust the zoom by tapping or sliding the scale in the viewfinder.
- The maximum recording limit when you use Video Boost is 10 minutes. If you’re low on storage space, you’ll get a warning and the recording will stop.
Tips:
- When the scene is dark enough, you’ll get a suggestion to turn on Video Boost and try Night Sight Video. Learn more about Night Sight and astrophotography.
- Video Boost 60fps may reduce frame rate dynamically based on the scene conditions and camera motions.
- Video Boost boosted videos will always have 1080p resolution if you select Storage saver under "Backup quality" in Google Photos.
Immediately after you record a video, you can watch, edit, or share the initial video in Google Photos. The initial video will be 1080p, 30 frames per second, and in SDR.
To watch the initial video, from your Pixel Camera app, tap Preview.
If you have backup turned on, your video will automatically be backed up and boosted on the cloud. If you do not have backup turned on, you can manually back up the specific video and have that video boosted. Backup and cloud processing can take a long time due to large file sizes. A strong Wi-Fi connection helps with faster uploading and processing.
Tips:
- If you do not connect to the internet and back up your temporary video, your temporary video won’t be boosted. Learn how to back up photos and videos.
- To speed up processing, check if your temporary video has successfully loaded.
After a while, the boosted video is ready and a notification will be sent.
- To receive notifications, turn on notifications for Google Photos.
- Upload and processing time depends on the size of the video and your internet connection speed.
In Google Photos, you can watch both the initial and boosted video by tapping on the video thumbnails.
- The boosted video will have this icon: .
- For the best playback quality, download the boosted video, if it’s not already downloaded on your device.
- The boosted video will automatically download to your device when you’re connected to Wi-Fi for the best viewing quality experience.
You can share boosted videos through Google Photos and third-party apps:
- On your device, open Google Photos Photos.
- Select a video.
- The boosted version of the video will show the Video Boost icon .
- Tap Share and then Send.
Tip: Google Files or third-party apps may show a temporary preview video file when the Boosted video is not yet done processing.
Learn how Video Boost stores files
When you record a video, your phone stores it as a temporary video file. Video Boost uses this file to make a boosted video. The file size can vary based on the scene that you record, resolution, and framerate.
Tips:
- While the temporary video file is still being boosted, it doesn’t use up your Google Photos storage space on the cloud. However, you may notice that the temporary file can take up available storage space on your phone.
- To save space, your phone automatically deletes the temporary file after your boosted video is ready.
- If you move the temporary file from its original location on your device, the file may not be automatically deleted.
To delete the file manually before your boosted video replaces it:
- On your phone, open the Google Photos app Photos.
- Tap the video in your gallery.
- Tap the thumbnail for the temporary file.
- This file is not the boosted video, as it is not playable.
- At the bottom, tap Delete .
Learn how much data Video Boost uses
Video Boost follows the backup settings that you’ve set in Google Photos. If you’ve set Google Photos to allow backup only on Wi-Fi, Video Boost does not upload nor download over mobile data.
Learn how to use Pro Stable Video
You can automatically apply smoother stabilization to Video Boost videos with Pro Stable Video. This feature is available on Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL.
Turn Pro Stable Video on or off:
- Open the Camera app.
- At the bottom left, tap Settings and then More More settings.
- Scroll to Video.
- Turn Pro Stable Video on or off.
Tip: This feature is turned on by default. It automatically triggers in some shaky, brightly-lit scenes.