Google will now allow users to remove visible watermark from its AI generations

In Brief Posted: 9:13 AM PDT · August 14, 2026 Image Credits: Matteo Della Torre/NurPhoto / Getty Images Ivan Mehta Google will now allow users to remove visible watermark from its AI generations Google announced on Friday that it will now allow users to remove a visible watermark from its AI generations, including images, videos, and songs. The company specified that this won’t affect the invisible SynthID watermark and C2PA standard-related metadata. Josh Woodward, the company’s VP for Gemini, said in a post on X that this toggle will be available for Nano Banana, Omni, and Lyria models. He specified that the setting to turn the visible watermark off will be available in Gemini and Google’s video editor, Flow , with support for Search coming soon. The change reflects an evolving approach to labeling AI-generated media, as visible watermarks can often make content less useful for professional and creative work, but the need to identify AI-generated content remains. “We’re striking a balance here between creative control and safety: while the visible watermarks are now optional, invisible SynthID watermarks and C2PA metadata are still being used for transparency. So you can still use Gemini or Search to see if an image was AI-generated,” he wrote. The feature is rolling out in the coming days, and once available, users will be able to go to Settings > Media Watermark to turn the visible mark on or off. Google is also open-sourcing a new library called Credentio to let developers embed a local validation mechanism in their apps. This comes after Anthropic’s hotly debated move to include a watermark in text and files generated by Claude to comply with EU regulations. Topics AI , Apps , gemini , Google October 13 – 15 San Francisco Scale faster. Grow your portfolio. Gain practical expertise. No matter your goal, Disrupt can empower you. Save up to $300 toda y! REGISTER NOW Newsletters See More Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news TechCrunch Daily News Every weekday and Sunday, you can get the best of TechCrunch’s coverage. TechCrunch Mobility TechCrunch Mobility is your destination for transportation news and insight. Startups Weekly Startups are the core of TechCrunch, so get our best coverage delivered weekly. StrictlyVC Provides movers and shakers with the info they need to start their day. No newsletters selected. Subscribe By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . Related Climate Hyperscalers might regret embracing natural gas if new forecast proves correct Tim De Chant 3 hours ago AI Nvidia’s new $500B plan is risky but brilliant, especially for aging GPUs Julie Bort 1 day ago AI Some Claude users are mad that Anthropic’s new watermarks will catch them using it at their jobs, classes Lucas Ropek 2 days ago Latest in AI In Brief Google will now allow users to remove visible watermark from its AI generations Ivan Mehta 30 minutes ago AI Does Mark Zuckerberg really believe AI is ‘for everyone’? Theresa Loconsolo 1 hour ago 33 min AI Kog is going deeper to squeeze more inference out of GPUs Anna Heim 2 hours ago