Google Photos
At Mobile World Congress 2018, Google announced a wider rollout for Lens in both Assistant and Photos, and new features like improved support for recognizing animals. This ability to recognize different cat and dog breeds is now going live for users.
The updated list of I/O 2018 sessions yesterday hinted at “exciting updates” for Google Photos at the annual developer conference in May. Till then, version 3.18 is rolling out with work continuing on liking photos and videos in shared albums, more precise archiving, and possible Cardboard Camera integration.
With I/O 2018 kicking off in under a month, Google has added new sessions, office hours, and other events to the schedule. New entires hint at “exciting” Google Photos updates, the launch of the .app domain, and more.
Google’s Pixel is the home of a lot of crazy camera technology that no one else in the industry has really beaten. The biggest example being Google’s incredible portrait mode, which uses software to create some of the best portraits in the industry. However, there’s one feature that was supposed to arrive, but never did — image obstruction removal.
In our teardown of Google Photos 3.15 late last month, we spotted the development of a GIF export feature. It is now live, and as we speculated is for Motion Photos on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL.
Google Photos is absolutely one of the company’s most powerful services, and also one of its most useful. Google is constantly working on improving the service with various features, and recently it’s started listing the locations you visited on a specific date, right alongside the divider for that date.
Google’s AI is extremely powerful, and there’s no better showcase for that than the Google Assistant. Its most recent trick, Google Lens, debuted shortly after the Pixel 2’s launch, and now it’s finally rolling out to all users. Sort of…
The latest version of Google Photos is rolling out today with some minor visual changes already live. However, version 3.15 hints at the wider release of Google Lens to all Android devices, liking content in Shared albums, and a possible GIF export option.
In addition to a bevy of Assistant news ahead of MWC 2018, Google Lens is also gaining a wider release and new features. Meanwhile, per a report yesterday, Google is also bringing ARCore out of beta today and touts 100 million supported devices.
Over the weekend, we were able to activate Favorites within Google Photos. Version 3.14 is now rolling out and offers more details about the long overdue feature. Meanwhile, the update hints at controls for adjusting blur that could possibly be for the Pixel 2’s Portrait Mode.
Google Photos first added strings referencing a “Favorites” feature last August. Several versions later, this staple feature found in most other gallery apps is still absent. However, with version 3.13 of the Android client, we’ve now been able to activate and use Favorites.
In the past, Google Photos has offered to automatically make movies using your backed up images for special occasions. Now, you can head into the app and request it to make those special movies whenever you like. Here’s how to make a Valentine’s Day-themed video for your significant other…
Our teardown of Google Photos last November revealed that the image backup and management service was working on letting users create their own themed movies. That feature is rolling out today and allows for the manual creation of videos that were previously automatically generated.
Announced in 2016 and first showcased within Google Allo, App Preview Messaging lets you receive messages from third-party services even when the app isn’t installed on your device. Spotted in use by Duo last month, Google Photos now appears to be the latest app taking advantage of this functionality.
The latest version of Google Photos is rolling out this morning with a new search filter to easily find Motion Photos taken by a Pixel 2 or other compatible device. Meanwhile, additional notification settings let users control whether or not they receive promotional alerts.
One of the best features of Google Photos (other than the free cloud backups) is its automatic creation of collages and movies using the pictures captured by your smartphone. As we quickly approach the end of 2017, Photos is celebrating with a new film titled “Smiles of 2017” in which the app automatically finds your selfies from the past year and displays some of your favorite memories…
PhotoScan is an incredible tool for digitizing physical prints en masse without the need of a dedicated photo scanner. Today, the app is getting even more convenient with images now automatically saved to device — and Google Photos — after capture. Meanwhile, version 1.5 also adds cropping enhancements.
Google Drive has long featured a tab for Google Photos in its navigation drawer that provides users with another method to view their uploaded images and videos. Starting next month, this integration will get de-prioritized, but ultimately remain accessible.
The latest update of Google Photos began rolling out yesterday with a visual change that adds a light navigation bar on Pixel devices, as well as new text selection functionality in Google Lens. A teardown of version 3.10 reveals a number of in-progress features coming to the app.
Google Lens rolled out to Assistant on Pixel and Pixel 2 devices earlier this week and just today gained a translation feature. Meanwhile, Lens in Google Photos was also updated today with a text selection feature, while the app also gained a light navigation bar.
The latest version of Google Photos is rolling out this afternoon with one notable change to the app’s built-in photo editing feature. The editor now features a quick shortcut to open an image in other editing apps.
In a small, but impactful update, Google today announced that the Drive apps are receiving “improvements to the image insertion process.” Applicable to Docs, Slides, and Drawings on the web, there is now a redesigned menu and dedicated drawer for adding images to files.
Following a redesign of the share sheet in the previous update, the latest version of Google Photos is rolling out now. Google Lens on the Pixel and Pixel 2 pick up a really neat and Googley animation when activating, while there are minor UI changes, and a photo book-related promotion.
At its October 4th event, Google shared more details about Lens including how it would initially launch in Google Photos for Pixel devices. After launching with the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, Google Lens is beginning to appear for those on last year’s devices as part of a “Pixel preview.”