Google Photos redesign makes it easier than ever to browse and share photos
If you’re a digital hoarder, Google Photos remains one of the most natural places to dump all of the photos and videos you’ve taken or saved. Between the incredibly smart searches, some very good sharing features, and some reasonably powerful organizational tools, it’s a good way to keep your library in the cloud. Of course, there’s no reason it can’t be better, and today Google is sharing details about how it’s going to be.
There are some notable changes coming in the next few weeks, starting with a revision to the Library tab. The interface has been redesigned to place chips across the top of the screen for quick and convenient filtering. With one tap you can narrow down your view to just albums, shared albums, favorites, or on-device folders. This will replace the current version that keeps some specialty folders at the top, a carousel row dedicated to on-device photos, and then your list of regular and shared albums mixed together.
This view retains the sorting options, but switches layouts between a two-column grid and a list based on your sorting selection.
You’ll now find those special folders have moved to the bottom of the Library tab, but they will also be joined by a brand new button dedicated to importing both physical and digital photos and videos. This leads to a new page designed to assist with transferring photos from digital cameras or other cloud-based storage services like Facebook and iCloud, adding them from local storage, or scanning them using either your phone or external digitizer.
The Sharing tab has its own upgrades coming, and perhaps ironically will now take a design very similar to the now-old version of the Library tab. For quite some time, the Sharing tab has shown a single list that combines all of your shared albums, conversations, and shared links. The newly redesigned screen breaks up each of these types into their own distinct groups for easier browsing, maintenance, or continuing to add to them. Partner sharing appears at the top, followed by shared albums, conversations, and finally links.
Screenshots are rounding out the list of upcoming features. To begin with, a new shortcut will be added to the top of the main photo grid to speed up access to all of the maps, software bugs, and hilarious autocorrect accidents you’ve snapped recently. Additionally, Google is rolling out some intelligent features that will appear when you view a screenshot, much like the editing suggestions that are shown with regular photos. You’ll see options to do things like copy text, crop, search with Google Lens, and more.
Google aims to roll out the updated Sharing tab to Android devices this week, and iOS devices are expected to follow shortly after. Changes to the Library tab and the new screenshot shortcut don’t have a clear timeline yet, but should appear on all devices over the next few weeks.
The note-taking app I should have used all along
Broader branding hints at wider paid-tier ambitions
Not yet, anyway
A small but impactful change
Tablets and accessories are also on sale
Your new browser chrome-panion
