Google lets you remove the visible watermark from AI images, videos and songs
The visible stamp is now optional. The hidden watermark that proves an image is AI-generated stays put.
Key points
- Google announced on 14 August 2026 that users can now turn off the visible watermark on AI-generated images, videos and songs.
- The invisible SynthID watermark and C2PA metadata, two background signals that identify AI-made content, remain in place regardless of the setting.
- The toggle is available for Google's Nano Banana, Omni and Lyria AI models inside the Gemini app and the video editor Flow, with Search support coming soon.
- Google is also releasing an open-source library called Credentio so developers can add their own AI-content verification tools to their apps.
If you have ever created an image or song with Google's AI tools and found the visible stamp awkward for a work project or a design, you will soon be able to turn it off. Google announced on Friday that the visible watermark on AI-generated content is now optional across its main creative AI tools.
The change is a practical one for anyone doing professional or creative work. A stamp printed across an AI image can make it harder to use in a presentation, a social-media post or a piece of marketing. Google is responding to that friction.
Does this mean AI-generated content will be harder to detect?
No. The visible watermark was always the easy part to spot. The protections that actually matter stay on.
Google's Josh Woodward, the company's vice-president for Gemini, confirmed in a post that SynthID and C2PA metadata remain active. SynthID is an invisible watermark baked into the image or audio file itself, below the level a human eye or ear can detect. C2PA metadata is a set of background data attached to a file that records where and how it was created. Neither is affected by the new toggle.
"We're striking a balance here between creative control and safety," Woodward wrote. "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."
Which tools and models does this cover?
The setting covers three of Google's AI models: Nano Banana (image generation), Omni (video) and Lyria (music). It will appear inside the Gemini app and Flow, Google's AI video editor. Support inside Google Search is coming soon.
Once the feature reaches your account, you can find the toggle at Settings, then Media Watermark.
| Model | Content type | Where to find the toggle |
|---|---|---|
| Nano Banana | Images | Gemini app |
| Omni | Videos | Gemini app, Flow |
| Lyria | Songs | Gemini app |
Google is rolling the feature out over the next few days, so not every account will see it immediately.
The company is also open-sourcing a new software library called Credentio. Developers, meaning the people who build apps, can use it to add local AI-content verification directly inside their own products, without relying on Google's servers to do the checking.
The move comes as AI content labelling becomes a live policy question across the industry. As TechCrunch AI noted, Anthropic recently sparked debate by adding watermarks to text and files produced by its Claude AI assistant to meet European Union rules.
Common questions
If I turn off the visible watermark, can people still tell my image was AI-made?
Yes, if they use the right tool. The hidden SynthID signal stays in the file, and both Gemini and Google Search can read it to flag the content as AI-generated.
Do I need to do anything to keep my content labelled?
Nothing changes by default. The invisible watermark and C2PA metadata stay on unless Google changes that policy in future. The new setting only controls the visible stamp you can see on screen.
