Google allows users to turn off visible Gemini watermarks

Google has introduced a new "Media watermark" toggle in the settings menu for Gemini and its Flow AI video generator. This setting allows users to remove the visible "sparkle" watermark that normally appears in the bottom-right corner of images, videos, and music generated by the company's Nano Banana and Omni models. According to Josh Woodward, vice president of Google Labs, Gemini, and AI Studio, the option will also eventually roll out to Google Search, though it will remain disabled in countries that legally mandate visible AI labels.

Although the visible indicator is now optional, the underlying files will not be entirely unmarked. Google will continue to embed invisible SynthID watermarks and C2PA metadata into the background of all generated assets. This ensures that platforms and users can still verify whether a piece of content was generated by AI by querying Gemini or Google Search, maintaining a layer of provenance even without the visual cue.

This update aligns Google with other major AI developers. Competitors like OpenAI and Meta do not use visible watermarks, relying instead on invisible standards like SynthID, C2PA, and Meta's Content Seal. Anthropic also recently announced it is applying invisible watermarks to its text and image outputs. For digital creators and developers, this change removes a common aesthetic annoyance, eliminating the need to manually crop or edit out watermarks before publishing. However, practitioners must remain aware of regional compliance rules, as the toggle will be restricted in jurisdictions with strict AI transparency laws.