MyHeritage comes with AI app for restoring and colorizing old photos

MyHeritage has released an app that should automatically restore old photos with AI. Scratches and creases, among other things, can be removed, but color can also be added to black and white photos. The app is available for Android and iOS.

The Reimagine app allows users to scan a photo they want to edit in a similar way to Google’s PhotoScan app. However, unlike that app, it is also possible to scan more photos at the same time, for example by pointing the phone camera at a page of a photo album. The scanned photos are then stored individually in the app.

According to MyHeritage it is then possible to color the photos, restore faded colors, repair scratches and increase the resolution. The machine learning technology used for this was created by the company DeOldify on behalf of MyHeritage.

The app comes with the Deep Nostalgia tool. It was released two years ago by MyHeritage and should ensure that faces in photos are animated. For example, the heads can be turned and the pupils can be moved, so that it appears as if the person in the photo is looking in a different direction. In 2022, a LiveStory function was added to that tool, which allows users to write a text, which is then ‘spoken’ by the person in the photo using text-to-speech, with the lips moving along with it.

Photos that have been edited using the tool will automatically have a watermark. According to MyHeritage, this makes it easy to see whether a photo has been manipulated. The Reimagine app has limited free use. Users who want unlimited photo editing and access to all options will need to sign up for a paid subscription. That costs 9 euros per month or 55 euros for an annual subscription.