Google Gemini lets you remove visible watermarks now
▼ Summary
– Google now lets users remove visible watermarks from AI-generated images, videos, and music by toggling off the “Media watermark” setting in Gemini and Flow.
– When disabled, the “sparkle” watermark in the bottom-right corner is removed, but invisible SynthID watermarks and C2PA metadata remain embedded for verification.
– Users can still check if content is AI-generated by asking Gemini or Search, even without visible markers.
– This change aligns with industry trends, as OpenAI and Meta already avoid visible watermarks, using alternatives like SynthID, C2PA, or Meta’s Content Seal.
– Google will extend the watermark toggle to Search, but it won’t be offered in countries that legally require visible watermarks.
Google is now letting users strip visible watermarks from AI-generated images, videos, and music. The update introduces a toggleable “Media watermark” setting within Gemini and Flow, Google’s AI video creation tool. When switched off, the familiar “sparkle” mark that typically sits in the bottom-right corner of content produced by the company’s Nano Banana and Omni models disappears entirely.
However, this doesn’t mean the content becomes untraceable. Josh Woodward, the vice president of Google Labs, Gemini, and AI Studio, confirmed that invisible SynthID watermarks and C2PA metadata will remain embedded in the background of all AI-generated material. Users can still verify the origin of any piece of content by asking Gemini or Search whether it was AI-generated, even with the visible marker removed.
The “Media watermark” toggle is accessible directly through Gemini’s settings menu. This shift acknowledges a practical reality: many users were already manually cropping or editing out visible watermarks on their own. Google’s move aligns it with competitors like OpenAI and Meta, whose image generators never applied visible watermarks in the first place. OpenAI relies on SynthID and C2PA to flag AI content, while Meta introduced its own Content Seal standard. Anthropic also announced this week that it would start embedding invisible watermarks into both AI-generated text and images.
Google plans to extend the watermark setting to Search in the future, though the toggle will not be available in countries where visible watermarks are legally required.
(Source: The Verge)
