Google Photos has just surpassed the 10 billion download milestone on the Google Play Store almost 4 years after reaching the halfway mark.
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After rolling out cross-device sync last year, Google Photos is making it much easier to open your Locked Folder on Android and iOS.
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In today’s digital age, photos and videos are more than just memories; they’re a curated archive of our lives. I’ve always found that storing them all can be a challenge, especially when we add video to the mix. For a long time, Google Photos has been the most convenient solution, but the monthly subscription fee and potential privacy concerns might not be worth it for some admittedly excellent features. Making the switch to other services is, therefore, an enticing prospect.
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Material 3 is slowly making its way to Google’s first-party web apps, with Photos being the latest example.
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In mid-May, Google Photos started rolling out a free version of Magic Editor to all users and it’s now seeing wider availability on Android devices.
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Ahead of Ask Photos this summer, Google has removed the “Things” carousel from the Search tab in Photos for Android and iOS.
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Gemini-powered Ask Photos is coming to Google Photos this summer, and the company this week shared a bit more about how it works.Â
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Last month, Google Photos announced that it would be making Magic Editor and other AI-powered tools free for all Android and iOS users. There are some constraints, but this is now starting to roll out for Pixel owners.Â
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While we wait for the Gemini-powered Ask Photos, a quality of life update to the Google Photos backup experience will let you “check if the item is ineligible for Storage saver.”
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Google Photos will gain context-aware voice and text prompts to search for specific images or details within images in the coming months.
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Google Photos is working on a redesign of the Library tab on Android that renames it to “Collections.” In recent weeks, Google has been testing this new UI with more users and the reaction is not particularly positive.
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As teased last May, Google Photos for Android is now using the animated Material You carousel for Memories.
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One of the best features of Google Photos is the app’s ability to show old photos as a “Memory,” but sometimes showing a specific person isn’t what you want. Now, Google Photos is preparing to make it easier to hide someone’s face from Memories.
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Google Photos is preparing to replace the Library tab with a redesigned “Collections” page alongside a new way to filter out “clutter.”
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The Google Photos app for Android appears to be bringing a web feature to mobile, as the ability to convert stored photos to a lower “storage saver” format is in the works.
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In a rather significant expansion, Google is making its AI-powered editing tools in Photos free without a subscription for all users, including the Magic Editor introduced with the Pixel 8.
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To speed up sharing, Google Photos now lets you set a “Favorite shortcut” to “share instantly and in full quality with your favourite person.”
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The OnePlus Photos app is getting a useful new trick, with support now available to integrate Google Photos with the app for backup and showing your library.
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Following the February announcement, Android’s new cloud photo picker, which supports Google Photos and other apps, is more widely rolling out.
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Back in November, Google Photos introduced better document sorting and another update to the capability adds labels to screenshots, notes, etc., as well as a manual categorization option.
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Besides more widely rolling out auto-grouping Stacks, Google Photos is getting a new Activity-based personalization setting.
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Back in October, Google Photos started rolling out a native Android 14 share sheet instead of its custom implementation, and we’re not seeing it widely available on Pixel phones.
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Google Photos announced “Photo Stacks” in November and it’s now starting to roll out on Android after first debuting on iOS.
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Business cards, receipts, signs, etc. We’ve all taken pictures of these for safekeeping only to have to dig through our library to find them later. Google Photos already has a “Documents” section to help speed that update, but now the app seems to be adding support for better controls over what photos do and do not appear in it.
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