Pixel 8 Pro 'Video Boost' before-and-after videos emerge on social media as majority still waits for the feature

The December 2023 Pixel Feature Drop introduced several exciting new features, including Video Boost, which promises to significantly enhance the quality of videos captured on the Pixel 8 Pro. However, the rollout has been slow and staggered, leaving many users frustrated. The frustration has further been acerbated after some Pixel 8 Pro owners started sharing impressive before and after videos showcasing the new ‘Video Boost’ feature on social media, leaving many waiting for the update eager to get their hands on it.

Google has acknowledged the gradual rollout, meaning the feature will not be available immediately to everyone. There’s no clear explanation why, but it’s likely Google just being extra careful to avoid overwhelming their servers. For instance, a 9-second video apparently needs to send about 300MB of data to Google for video boosting while about 2 minutes of video is nearly 3.5GB of data. So you can imagine what thousands of concurrent requests can do to the servers. Also, having the feature on a small sample makes it easy to monitor the usage and any bugs and issues that may arise in the early stages. This is all designed to ensure a smoother rollout.

Despite the limited availability, early adopters have taken to social media platforms like X and YouTube to share their experiences with Video Boost on their Pixel 8 Pro units. The before-and-after videos are impressive, highlighting a noticeable improvement in brightness, detail, and overall image quality. And after watching some of the videos shared by the few people who’ve received the feature, I can tell you for sure that Video Boost on the Pixel 8 Pro does deliver the promise on 3 things:

There’s a noticeable increase in the brightness and detail of videos captured in low-light conditions. This is made possible through Video Boost with Night Sight, which is essentially Night Sight on steroids. It makes it ideal for capturing nighttime scenes or videos indoors, as seen in the before and after video below. However, be warned Video Boost processing takes time, as Sammy Angor on X discovered when video boosting an 18-second video that took over half an hour.

Boosted videos have much improved color accuracy that makes the footage appear more natural. For instance, the HDR and colors in the video below are impressive with Video Boost compared to the rather dull initial footage.

You might also have noticed some of the before videos above appear noisy, but Video Boost made them smoother and more polished. There are even more YouTube Shorts showcasing the feature in action (1,2,3,4), but it’s a shame not all of them included the footage before boosting.

Video Boost utilizes the Pixel 8 Pro’s powerful neural processing unit (NPU) to analyze and enhance video footage in the cloud. AI automatically adjusts brightness, contrast, saturation, and other parameters to improve the overall appearance of the video. Notably, the video must first be uploaded to the cloud through Google Photos for Video Boost to work. Otherwise, the video can’t be boosted. Furthermore, the feature won’t work if Locked Folder is enabled in Google Photos.

Despite the positive feedback, Google hasn’t provided a clear timeline for the wider rollout of Video Boost. This has left many Pixel 8 Pro owners feeling disappointed and frustrated. Many have expressed their frustration with the slow rollout on social media and online forums, as evidenced by some of the memes on X.

Some are even questioning Google’s decision to release the feature in phases, while others are simply impatient to try it out. But being a server-side switch, there’s nothing much you can do to jump ahead of the queue. Furthermore, the fact that videos can take hours to be boosted says everything about Google’s measured rollout. They obviously don’t want a situation where thousands of videos are waiting in the cloud to be boosted, which is exactly what would happen if Video Boost becomes available to every Pixel 8 Pro owner in one go.

While the early impressions of Pixel 8 Pro Video Boost are positive, the majority of users still haven’t had the chance to experience it firsthand. But as noted, this is far better than a wider rollout that is marred with bugs and performance issues.

Featured image: Best Buy