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Every smartphone has a solid gallery app for managing your media library, but Google offers more than that. Google Photos is packed with neat media organization, editing, cloud backup, and seamless sharing features. It's preinstalled on most Android phones, like the Google Pixel 8, and works across other platforms. Whether you're looking for a beginner's guide or want to explore its best features, here's the rundown on Google Photos.
Google Photos finally lets you override its document auto-categorization
New categorization options are rolling out now
Last month, Google services enthusiast AssembleDebug shared on X that Google Photos was working on a way to change how the app categorizes images of what it calls "Documents." The new setup would let users manually alter the way various images — screenshots, photos of receipts or event tickets, that sort of thing — are tagged, making it easier to organize that kind of info in Photos. We're seeing those new options on our own phones now: manual categorization is finally rolling out.
How to move photos from Samsung Gallery to Google Photos
Google Photos is superior for cross-device photo management. We'll help you transfer your Samsung Gallery images to the app quickly
Samsung Gallery has many features that rival Google Photos, but Gallery is limited to the Samsung ecosystem. You can't use it if you don't own a Galaxy smartphone or tablet. Also, the company discontinued automatic syncing with its Cloud service and replaced it with Microsoft OneDrive. You'll need a Microsoft account to access the service.
These new Google Photos chips could tame the messiest parts of your library
A fix for incorrect document categorization inches closer to completion
There are scores of file manager apps on Android, but more often than not, we snap photos of documents to digitize them for convenient sharing and storage. That’s perhaps why popular keyboard apps like Gboard integrated optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities recently. But that doesn’t help manage your gallery app filled with the shots of receipts you wanted to split, notes you borrowed from a friend, or recipes you spotted online. Google Photos deploys AI to assist with automatic categorization, but that’s not spot-on every time. Now, we have our first detailed look at the upcoming manual categorization override feature.
Google Photos will use your activity data to surface Memories
A new setting allows you to disable the algorithmic-style personalization
Google Photos and image-based social media platforms like Instagram might seem like night and day. While Google's app is geared toward organization and storage, social media apps tend to focus more on content and personalization. That being said, the Big Tech giant doesn’t steer clear of customization entirely — in fact, it has debuted features reminiscent of what its competitors offer. For instance, Memories — computer-generated collections of your photos — are curated in Google Photos to provide a more touching experience. However, just like your social media feed, these features don’t function seamlessly without algorithms and data.
How to hide personal photos on your Android or iOS device
It’s in your best interest to protect sensitive media
Sharing photos and videos with your co-workers, boss, and family is fun. But there may be images you'd rather keep private. There are multiple ways to make photos and videos private, no matter which phone you use. From a budget Android phone using the new Android 14 OS to a premium iPhone Pro, you can safeguard photos in a few quick steps so that prying eyes don't fall on them. Here are all the ways to do it, from using your phone's included apps to a few third-party methods.
Google Photos may finally let you fix its bad auto-categorization
Manual recategorization for documents is in the pipeline
There are many fantastic document scanner apps for Android which instantly convert a series of photos into PDF files, sometimes featuring optical character recognition (OCR) and page edge detection. Google Drive, which comes pre-installed on most Android devices, has a document scanner built-in, but we may not remember to use it in the heat of the moment, instead resorting to snapping a quick photo using the camera app. Google Photos smartly identifies images of documents from your camera roll and categorizes them separately, but the process is automated, and hence prone to errors. However, it appears manual recategorization support may be in the works.
Google Photos could completely reimagine the Library tab
An app flag renames it to Collections and shakes up several UI elements
Google Photos has been on autopilot for many months now, and Google has focused its attention on other core Android apps meanwhile. It appears developers are getting back in the groove now, and giving one of our favorite gallery apps some much-needed attention. Recent changes finally gave us Photo stacks on Android, and an upcoming feature could simplify image sharing. Another change currently in the pipeline could completely transform the Library tab in the app, and we aren’t sure how to feel about it.
The OnePlus 12's first update adds Ultra HDR support in Google Photos
The OnePlus 12 joins Google and Samsung’s latest flagships in supporting Android 14’s new image format
One of the highlight features of Android 14 is Google’s new Ultra HDR image format. If you don’t know what it is, it’s a new image format that’s based on the ubiquitous JPEG format, meaning it’s supported by nearly every platform out there. Ultra HDR builds upon JPEG by adding an HDR gainmap to its metadata, which allows the same image to be displayed properly on both standard and high dynamic range displays.
Google Photos could simplify sharing important pictures with close friends
My Week could send weekly updates
In the last few months, we have seen several changes to the Google Photos app, most of which are still in development. Google rolled out Photo stacks in January, and we saw Memories get a new look the month before. It’s fun to see the photographs smartly collated in unique grid layouts, but sometimes, we wish Memories were generated more frequently. To address this concern, Google now seems to be hard at work creating a weekly highlights reel for you.
Google Photos is one of our favorite gallery apps on Android because it packs several useful features into a simple UI which also matches the visual style of all other Google apps. Photos also give users the convenience of backups to Google Drive cloud storage, so the device storage isn’t always full of photos. Now, the company is rolling out a feature called Stacks to help you collate similar images together on Android devices.
The best camera phones have a lot to offer, even to the most hard-to-please photo and video enthusiasts. They capture high-res pictures, but their sizes are too large for most social media networks. Many government, banking, and university websites require you to upload smaller images. Some sites automatically crop photos that don't adhere to their standards, but pictures might get cut off at the wrong places.
Our top 16 Google Photos editing tips and tricks to help you get the best smartphone photos
Don't dismiss Google Photos as an average photo editing app
Google Photos is the default Gallery app on Android. It's your one-stop solution for backing up media files, editing images and videos, and creating beautiful memories. Google Photos' editing capabilities have evolved, and you don't need a dedicated photo editing app to make small tweaks. Most media editing features are limited to Android and iOS apps and remain unavailable on Google Photos for the web on Windows, Mac, and ChromeOS.
Heads-up: Google Photos doesn’t play nicely with Ultra HDR downloads
Metadata is missing when you download Ultra HDR images from Photos
With the launch of the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, Google introduced Ultra HDR photography to parts of its phone lineup. The new image format uses HDR displays’ capabilities to their fullest extent, making it possible to show even brighter and hence more contrast-rich images. The standard is built on top of JPEG and backwards-compatible with older displays, ideally making the switch to Ultra HDR photography as smooth as it can be. It looks like there are some hiccups, though. People are noticing that when downloading Ultra HDR images from Google Photos on the web, no metadata is saved.
How to move your media from Google Photos to a Synology NAS
Keep all your full-resolution media online without paying for Google One
Google Photos is the best app to manage your growing photo and media library. Google's photo backup service is free, but the storage isn't. You get 15GB of storage shared across your Google account. You'll exhaust this space in no time if you click a lot of pictures and videos using one of the best camera phones. You can pay for additional storage or back up your photos and videos to a Synology NAS. You don't need to pay for a subscription for Synology Photos, as it is bundled with your enclosure.
Google Photos is the most convenient photo management app for Android. It automatically syncs your pictures across all supported devices. Photos you take on your phone appear on your Android tablets in minutes when you connect your default Google account to the device.
The biggest flaw with Android’s new photo picker could finally get fixed
You might soon be able to finally access your Google Photos content
Google introduced a new and more privacy-focused media picker last year with Android 13, which it backported to older phones all the way to Android 4.4. In contrast to older methods, the new picker doesn’t give apps as much access to your private media files, but it has one big disadvantage: It currently can’t access media from your cloud storage. It looks like that’s finally about to change for Google Photos at least.
Google Photos’ Memories redesign rolling out more widely
It began showing up on people's phones in September
Google Photos is used by people at all ends of the smartphone and smart device spectrum, from Google Pixel 8 Pro owners who have everything in their life revolving around the Google ecosystem, to iPhone 15 Pro Max owners who can’t deny how useful Photos is for storing and backing up memories. To us at Android Police, there’s nothing better. It’s the Swiss Army Knife of gallery apps. Have you ever seen the Mona Lisa in person? If not, you probably have seen a picture of it shared by someone who stored it in Photos. The app actually deserves its own spot at the Louvre, if we’re being honest. Months after the newest Google Photos app redesign launched in September, it seems to just now be widely rolling out to the masses.
Smart displays can do a lot, but even in the busiest households, they tend to sit unused for long stretches of time. You can opt to have most displays show various clock faces or famous artworks while they're idle, but personally, I think the best way to use these screens in their downtime is as digital photo frames.
How to make GIFs from your Android phone's motion photos
Create and export GIFs straight from Google Photos
If a picture says 1,000 words, how much does a video say? With motion photos, you get the flexibility of a recording with the same quality as a static image. When activated, motion photos take a series of shots when a photo is taken. You are left with a series of images and a short video. After it's activated, each photo is accompanied by a low frame rate video that's perfect for making GIFs of your dog, kid, or anything else.