Google recently announced a new design for the Google Photos application packed with brand new features and a streamlined look. The redesign is slowly rolling out for Android and iOS, and some users may already have the new design and features, including one that will help you keep track of your copious pet images.
You can try updating your Google Photos application through Google play or the App store to see if the new version is waiting to be installed for you; otherwise it will probably arrive on your device soon. You will know you have it when the app icon changes to the new rounded look. Let’s take a look at what’s new in this iteration of the app.
What’s new
Google Photos now has a simplified main menu at the top of the application that includes a “Chat” button on the left to send messages and media to other users. On the right, there is a shortcut to your profile that takes you to your account and app settings.
Everything else has been simplified into three different tabs: Photos, Search, and Library, selectable from a menu at the bottom of the app’s user interface. This is what each tab contains:
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Photos tab
The main tab of Google Photo is now called “Photos” and it is the default screen you will see when you load the app. At the top of the tab is a “Memories” section, which replaces the “For You” tab in the previous UI. Memories are a slideshow of an Instagram or Snapchat-like story of photos that the app automatically selects. Everything in the Memories archive is completely private and does not appear in your public Google Photos profile or shared collections. The Photos tab also has sections for recent images, as well as “favorites,” which are presumably images you open or share often.
Search tab
Naturally, the Search tab has plenty of filters and administration tools that you can use to organize your collection.
The top of the Search tab shows a list of people and pets, yes, pets, of which you often take photos. The new “Stuff” view creates filtered collections of photos based on objects or activities that you often photograph. For example, if you often take pictures of your own art, Google Photos may create a “Drawings” tab for you.
The Search tab also has a “Places View” that includes a Google Maps-like graphic of all the places where you have taken a photo or recorded a video. Touch “See all” to see a list of locations. Selecting a location opens a new screen with a map of the area filled with smaller “hot spots” of specific locations where a photo was taken, and below the map is a scrolling thumbnail list for all the photos / videos they display that place.
Library tab
The library tab is exactly what it seems: it lists all of your photo collections, including a garbage section with recently deleted photos that have not yet been permanently deleted (something you can do manually if you don’t want to wait for them) to be deleted from your automatically counts after a set period of time). It is also the general location for any miscellaneous features not found elsewhere, such as animation creation tools, built-in print orders from Google Photos.
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