Windows 11’s photos app is getting slideshows and a blemish removal tool

Microsoft is testing new updates to its Photos app for Windows 11, including a Spot Fix tool for fixing up blemishes in photographs and a new slideshow feature. Windows 11 testers in the Canary and Dev Channels can get access to these new features immediately and they should be available to all Windows 11 users in the coming months.

The new slideshow experience lets you view your photos in a slideshow format with the usual animations and transitions and cheesy soundtracks. “This was a top feature request we received from the community since launching the new Photos app in Windows 11 last Fall,” says Yvonne Hsieh, a principal product manager for Windows Photos.

Microsoft is also bringing back another top feature request: timeline scrollbar. This lets you scroll through points in time and find photos by year and month, particularly useful if you’re looking for a memory from a particular year.

The last addition is a Spot Fix tool that will let you remove blemishes or “unwanted areas” from photos. That might sound like the Magic Eraser feature that Google offers, but unfortunately it’s more of a touchup tool that tries to match the content in the rest of the photo. You can adjust the size of the spot, but it’s not the same as being able to select an object and magically make it disappear.

Microsoft has been gradually improving its Photos app over the past year. The Windows 11 2022 Update introduced a new photo management UI in the Photos app that includes a gallery, improved browsing, and the ability to easily back up photos to OneDrive cloud storage.