Google Photos is a fantastic app, but storing and accessing to all your images from the cloud can be a strain on your smartphone's bandwidth and storage, especially if it's a budget Android device. Last month, Google launched Gallery Go (along the lines of Maps Go and Google Go), a lightweight picture manager targetted at the hundreds of millions of budget devices being used in developing countries. Today, the app got an update that adds dark mode — something other apps like Messenger and Google Photos already have.
Read MoreGoogle Photos update brings wide color support, breaks night mode on OnePlus 7 Pro
Pixels may take great photos, but both Android and the platform's applications have otherwise lagged behind iOS when it comes to color management, to the displeasure of photographers and designers alike. However, the latest version of Google Photos (v4.21) finally delivers wide color gamut support, though it does cause a few issues on some devices like the OnePlus 7 Pro.
Read MoreGoogle Photos now has a billion active users
Google started helping users manage their photos back in 2002 with Picasa. Now, it's all about Google Photos, and that service has hit an important milestone. After four years of operation as a standalone service, Photos has a billion active users. Most of them are getting free storage from Google, too.
Read More[Update: APK Download] Google's Gallery Go is a lighter photo organization app designed for offline use
Adding to its lineup of lighter apps for low-cost phones, Google has introduced Gallery Go — a photo organization app intended for offline use while taking up as little space as possible. Even so, it features some of the same machine learning capabilities and editing tools as its more advanced sibling, Google Photos.
Read MoreGoogle Photos now shows short preview clips of videos inside the gallery
I hadn't noticed how static the Google Photos library was until Apple's iOS 13 announcement, when our favorite Android competitor showed off its improved Photos app with smarter navigation and live previews of videos, Live Photos, and more. After seeing that, each time I scrolled through Google Photos on my phone, I wished it could be as lively, and now it finally is... though there's room for improvement.
Read MoreHow to disable battery optimization for Google Photos and other system apps on OnePlus devices
With the introduction of Doze in Marshmallow, app developers and users had to find the perfect balance between battery life and background activity. Granular options for battery optimization exist on most Android devices, allowing you to single out apps you'd like to give free rein to. This can be crucial for backup apps (Google Photos), companion apps for wearables (Fitbit, Wear), and smart home security apps that require your location to arm or disarm (Nest, SmartThings).
However, some phones like the ones from OnePlus limit your access to battery optimization settings for system apps, specifically, meaning you can't give Google Photos the freedom to run whenever it needs to, which usually results in stalled backups.
Read MoreGoogle Drive and Photos sync goes away today, and the alternatives are not up to par
If you rely on the seamless sync between Google Photos and Drive, you've probably heard the bad news. After being rumored for a month, the dissociation between the two services was made official in June, and today is the day it happens. From now on, you'll have to figure out a different way to keep your photo gallery and photo files in sync. Sadly, there's no real alternative.
Read MoreGoogle Photos product lead confirms manual face tags, timestamp edits on Android, and other features in the works
Yesterday, Google Photos' product lead, David Lieb, took to Twitter to ask users for direct feedback about the app. The goal, as he said, was to be made aware of outstanding bugs, possible performance improvements, and most importantly feature requests. The conversation lasted for many hours, during which David replied to many of the messages sent, confirmed a few features are coming, and heard what everyone had to say.
Read MoreThe Best Of AP
Autosync for Google Drive can replace the outgoing Photos sync functionality
Google recently announced that the link between Drive and Photos is going away in July, saying that many users find it confusing. Thus, the company leaves us without a simple solution to see our backed up images right in Drive. Thankfully, as is so often the case, there's a third-party app that can do a similar job for us. Autosync for Google Drive could fill in the gap for some users going forward, although it comes with its own limitations.
Read MoreImages will no longer automatically sync between Google Drive and Photos starting in July
Google has long maintained an optional link between Google Drive and Google Photos, but it appears that feature is going away. According to Google, many users find the connection between those services confusing. So, get ready for a "simplified" experience going forward.
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