At Google I/O executives shared that the feature was simply, ‘down prioritized.’ According to a report by XDA Developers, the object removal feature was teased during the 2017 keynote to demonstrate Google’s machine learning capabilities. XDA Developers says that “while the technology is certainly available and can be deployed, the team approaches building their product by prioritizing what’s most important for people. Hence, the Photos team prioritized other applications of machine learning above this feature.”
While XDA says this was just a case of reprioritization, 9to5Google reports a whole different story. According to their report, Google executives even refused to say if this feature, even a year later, was still expected to be ‘coming soon.’ “I wouldn’t say it’s coming very soon,” the Product Lead for Google Photos told 9to5Google. A tipster told the website that a serious underlying issue which the company has not managed to fix yet was the reason behind not just the delay, but also the change in priorities.