Google opens the SynthID Detector to everyone, for files only
Published 8 October 2026
Google DeepMind's SynthID page now says access to its SynthID Detector is expanding to everyone. Anyone can check whether an image, video or audio file was made with AI from Google or its partners, which the page names as OpenAI, NVIDIA, Kakao and, soon, Apple. Until this edit the page said Google was testing the portal with journalists and media professionals behind a waitlist. Text is not named as something the Detector takes[3].
What changed
The page's detection section was rewritten between our read of 7 October and 8 October 2026. The paragraph on the Detector now says Google launched it in 2025, tested it with journalists and media professionals, collected their feedback and is "expanding access to everyone"; a "Try now" link replaces the early-tester waitlist form. The other detection route widened too: the page now says Gemini, Search and Chrome will check an uploaded image, video or audio clip for a SynthID watermark on request, where it previously named Gemini alone[3]. The section on text watermarking in the Gemini app did not change[3].
What it means
Two rows in our tracker move. Google's image and video row and its audio row go from a Gated detector to Public. The partner coverage matters as much: OpenAI already says its images and audio carry SynthID[9], and Google now says its own portal reads them[3]. For text, nothing changes. The open-source SynthID Text library remains the only public way to check for any provider's text watermark, and it needs the watermarking key[4]. How SynthID works, and what the public can check.
What is still not known
The Detector link leads to a web application we could not read without running it, so we do not know whether it asks for a sign-in, which file types it takes, or how it reports a result. DeepMind gives no date for Apple and does not say what partner coverage means in practice. Nothing on the page says the portal checks text[3]. The tracker.
Sources
Last verified against primary sources: