Google is winding down popular app 'Pixel Studio': Here's why

Google is winding down its popular Pixel app, and tech experts have got the clue.

Pixel Studio was introduced in 2024 with the Pixel 9 alongside Screenshots and Weather. In light of other Google image generation features and integrations, Pixel Studio is going away.

An update (version 2.2.001.864530193.00) to Pixel Studio on the Pixel 9 and 10 series this week begins this wind-down. The updated image editor, which is often used to edit screenshots, no longer has generative AI tools that let you edit with a prompt, create stickers, and delete parts of the image.

Instead, it’s now just for cropping, drawing, highlighting, and adding text. This editor was introduced last year to replace Markup and features a Material 3 expressive interface.

While that part of Pixel Studio remains, the prompt-based image generation and sticker creator will go away in the future. Specifically, Google tells us today that it will "redirect Pixel Studio users to Nano Banana in Gemini while offering an easy export tool for all your creations.” This is happening “over time,” while “all Pixel Studio-powered integrations will continue to work as expected” for existing devices until then.

Google is instead focusing on image generation features like Remix in Google Messages and all the generative AI tools in Google Photos. Meanwhile, Nano Banana 2 was introduced for the Gemini app this week.

Pixel Studio is still using Imagen 4. Overall, this is not the biggest loss for Pixel users and likely reflects how much use the app actually got since launch.