Category: Google Photos

Google is in the process of rolling out a change they announced back in early December 2017 where viewing of Google Photos will no longer be available in Google Drive.  To be clear, this is in reference to the Google Photo menu option on the left.  If you click on that either online or in the Android/iOS app, you will no longer be able to view them.  Instead, you be prompted to go to Google Photos to view them.

Google Photos in Google Drive

The change is in an effort to simplify the connection between Google Photos and Google Drive.  Users were confused on where exactly to go and manage or edit photos as it appeared you could do it in both services.  Now Google is pushing everyone towards Photos for photo management.

Google Photos has been quietly rolling out a new AI-driven movie to many users over the past few days.  The new video will show up in your Assistant tab in the app and it titled “Smiles of 2017”.  With the hint in the name, you’ve probably guessed that this short video consists of photos of people smiling, be it selfies or other people that you have photographed over the past year.

The video falls under what is commonly referred to as the “auto awesome” features of Google Photos.  That is, the app which is driven by Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, will scour your photos to create photos or videos based on the content of your photos.

For those of you who have not tried out the Photo Book service through Google Photos, now is a good time to consider it.  Today through November 9th, you get free shipping on any hardcover photo book that you order through the service.  Photo Books start at $9.99.

The service allows you to select any photos from your Google Photos library and add them to a book.  You can then edit those photos, arrange them on the pages and through various templates to create a truly personalized book for yourself or as a gift.  In all, you can have up to 100 photos in a book a

I personally have ordered several Photo Books through Photos and I’ve not been disappointed in the quality of the product.  They make a great gift.

When the Google Pixel 2 lineup was released a couple of weeks ago, the new phones, like the first generation, were announced to have free uploading of original quality photos to Google Photos.  For those not familiar with Google Photos, original quality photos normally count against your Google Drive quota (which is leveraged by Photos) but compressed, high quality photos, don’t count against it.  Normally for photos under 16MP high quality is a great option because it is pretty lossless.

After the release of the Pixel 2 phones, it was noticed that the original quality uploading for free ended in 2020.  It cause a lot of confusion:  What happens to my photos I’ve uploaded already?  Do they get deleted?  Do they get compressed?  Thanks to an APK tear down by the Android Police team, we have a clearer answer.

Google Photos for Android has a small but handy update rolling out to users today.  The update, version 3.6 for those keeping score at home, brings improved speeds when it comes to sharing videos from your collection.

The improvements in speeds comes in the way that Photos handles video sharing.  When you want to share a video, a low resolution version of that video is uploaded to the service while the full resolution version is uploaded more slowly.  This is particularly handy when you are in congested network or have low signal while out-and-about.  Now you can share the video and it not take a long time to upload before you can share it.

Google Photos continues to be one of the fastest growing app & services from the Mountain View company.  With over a billion active users each month, Photos is the go-to place to store your photos online safe and sound.

But as a Google Top Contributor for Google Photos, there is one concept with the app that is a mystery to many:  Albums.  In the Product Forums for Photos and contacts here at the site, the idea behind Albums in Photos is one of the more confusing elements.  Hopefully this little tutorial will help explain things a bit.

First, let’s talk about the underlying structure of Google Photos itself.  The service leverages your Google Drive storage to store your photos.  If you store them in High Quality (you let Google compress your photos under 16MP in size), they don’t count against your Drive quota.  If you keep them in Original Quality, regardless of size, the count against your quota.

Second, there is no folder hierarchy concept in Google Photos.  Everything is in one folder which you view when you are viewing your library.  So what about albums?  Think of them as labels.