Google's new AI video feature is rolling out on another company's smartphones

• Google is debuting an AI-powered image-to-video tool on smartphones built by the Chinese firm Honor
• Honor’s new 400 series phones are getting the Google Veo-powered tool even before Google Pixel phones.
• The feature produced five-second animated videos in portrait or landscape orientation from a single image.

Google is showing off a new AI image-to-video feature using its Veo 2 model, but Google Pixel owners won't be able to use it just yet. Instead, Chinese phone company Honor, spun out of Huawei, is beating Pixel to the punch by incorporating the feature into its upcoming Honor 400 series of smartphones.

The feature processes still images straight from your photo gallery into five-second animated clips. You don't need a Gemini subscription or even a cloud connection to make the videos. Honor 400 owners will be able to feed the tool any image, whether a new photo, an AI-generated cartoon, or even a classic painting. After about a minute, you'll see a video of some kind of motion based on the initial upload. The AI can simulate camera moves, make subjects breathe or blink, or otherwise imbue life into the pixels.

Honor's place as the first home of the feature is born out of a deal with Google Cloud. It marks the first time the Veo 2 AI video model has been integrated directly into a smartphone. And while Gemini Advanced users can access a web-based version of Veo, Pixel owners don't have any special access to the video maker.

Honor before Pixel

Honor has pitched a lot of AI plans for the 500 series of phones. Google is providing several AI tools beyond the video generator. Google's Magic Eraser, AI Outpainting, and other creative flourishes are also baked into the smartphone's native camera and gallery apps. Of course, even the most magical AI gimmick won’t mean much if the phone itself is junk. But by the looks of it, the Honor 400 and 400 Pro are coming in hot with some decent mid- to upper-tier specs and a starting cost of around $550.

The Honor 400 phones will debut in China and Europe and are likely to appear in India too, but may not be seen much in the U.S. The ability to shoot, edit, and animate all from the same device without hopping between different apps might entice a lot of content creators and AI fans to pick the phone.

Honor getting early access to Veo 2, when even Pixel phones don’t have it yet, hints at a broader shift in how Google is approaching AI distribution. Rather than hoarding features for its own devices, it seems more interested in becoming an AI platform for the whole Android ecosystem, and potentially grabbing a little more influence in China while it’s at it.

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