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Following mobile redesign, Google Photos streamlines navigation on the web

Two weeks ago, Google introduced a major Photos revamp for Android and iOS. The latest Google Photos experience is now rolling out on the web with a slight navigation redesign that removes the hamburger button.


Similar to how the Photos revamp on mobile removes the bottom bar, the new website replaces the compact rail and navigation drawer for a unified sidebar. “Photos,” “Sharing,” “For you,” and “Print store” are the primary sections. “Albums” is now under “Library” with “Utilities,” “Archive,” and “Trash.” Meanwhile, “Settings” is now always visible in the top-right corner.

Most users likely only interacted with the navigation rail and never clicked the hamburger button, but this redesign makes it so that everything is always available.

This straightforward series of tweaks does have the downside of shrinking the horizontal gallery area. However, it’s not too notable an impact. Other changes include the “Create” button next to the search field being removed, while icons are mostly devoid of color. If you upload in Original quality, you’ll get a Storage meter in the bottom-left.

Google did not bring over features like the Memories carousel — given that the stories format is better suited to mobile — or the Places map, which would have excelled on a larger screen.

The Photos logo is only visible as a favicon, but the new pinwheel is not yet available. More broadly, the Google Photos web redesign is not widely rolled out today.

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Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com