Google Photos – A lot to
know about
Google Photos is one of those apps which we use quite frequently
but few of us actually know how to use it to its full potential. Google has
loaded this app with tons of features which all of us don’t know about. Photos app was launched during the 2015
I/O and it comes with the new os android update. So basically all the smartphones
running on the updated OS will have this app by default.
Since its launch Google Photos has undergone many changes. Frankly speaking I did
not find it user friendly when it first came to my phone and replaced Gallery
app. I was accustomed to the easy going folder view of Gallery. So I
immediately went to the play store and downloaded gallery again. But since then
Photos has evolved a lot and has
become an essential part of my phone.
It is free on playstore and gives
you bunch of features for photo management. It offers unlimited photo storage
(only 16Gb free then chargeable) with
16MP high resolution images and 1080p videos. Photos is also available on IOS also. Even you can download it on
your desktop which gives seamless access to all your photos and videos in your
handsets.
Let’s get through the some of the
coolest features of photos app.
1.
Easy upload of photos and videos from
Desktop.
Just
visit photos.google.com with your google login and that’s it. You need to drag
and drop you photos on the page. It’s as simple as it sounds. I tried doing it
from a windows xp pc just to see if its compatibility is not limited to any windows
os and I did not find any problem. It is really simple to use.
2.
Duplicates bye-bye
Google Photos is not just a
photo viewer. It also understands the photo content. So let’s say you have two
duplicate photos in your phone using up extra memory. Photos will merge those
duplicate photos thereby cleaning up a lot of space on your phone.
3.
Adding labels
Now you can add labels to the photos you click. Photos allows to add
description and labels to the photos. So next time you want find any photo just
click on the search icon on the photos app home page and you can get easy
access and find your favorite clicks instantly.
To add label to your photos open the photos>go to info and you can add
the description of the photo. This feature is only available with the photos
uploaded on the drive. So in order to use this feature you must upload the
image on google drive first. Before
uploading you can choose the quality of the images you want to upload. Just go
to Menu>Settings>Backup &
Sync>upload Size.
4.
Selecting Photos made simple
Google has given some really simple ways of selecting multiple photos.
You just to press long on any one photo so that it gets selected. Then you can
glide your finger through all the photos you want to select and it gets
selected. Pretty Simple!
From your desktop you can do it in the same old way of pressing the shift
key and selecting
5.
Pinching gestures.
You just need to use swipe and pinching operations to change the view. If
you pinch outwards the view will zoom in and you will get larger image views.
If you pinch inwards the images will get smaller and you will have small thumbnails
with more and more images as you continuing pinching inwards. In the end you
will have month wise view of images.
6.
Chromecast Support.
Yep it’s true. You don’t need to prep up a projector or do anything at
all to show images from your phone to a big screen. You just need a chromecast.
You can select which photos you want to show on TV and even do the same with
gif and videos.
7.
Slow – Fast scrolling.
You can scroll down the images in the traditional way by using your
fingers and sliding them on the screen. But what about someone who is a photo
lover and has a device full of photos. For that you can use the fast scrolling
method. You just need to click on the fast scroll available on the right side
of the screen and drag it up or down to move through the images quickly.
8.
Image Editing.
Photos app
allows you to do the basic editing of the images. It does not comes with all
the features available in those heavy built photo editing apps still for
day to day use basic editing functions are available. You can add shades
to your images, crop them, enhance the colour quality etc.
9.
Full of swiping.
Photos gives you many
shortcuts with swiping on the screen. If you are viewing an image in full
screen and you swipe downwards you will go the back to the image list. Swipe
right you will go the stories page where you can view the albums creates by
you. If there are no albums the assistant is there to help you out to create
one.
10. Animations
You can club your photos in an animated view using the Photos app. You
just need to select the no of photos you want to use for the animation and
click on the + sign. You will get a bunch of options such as album, movie,
story or animation. You can share these animations also.
11. Easy Sharing.
You can share your photos in the old traditional way by email, whatsapp,
Bluetooth or by other means. But Photos
offers a great new method to share your photos as albums. You just need to
select the photos you want to share and click on the share button. You will get
an option to create a link. This link is then copied to your system clipboard.
You can share this link with your friends and relatives. On opening the links
they will find a gallery containing only the photos you selected. They can even
download these photos quite easily.
If the person is signed into a Google account and is having Photos app, he can directly add the
photos to his gallery. This has taken the whole concept of photo sharing to a
new level.
There is an important feature without which the concept of photo sharing
is incomplete i.e. Revoking the rights to view the photos. You can get into
situations in which you share a photo you did not want to and now you want to
revoke the access to that photo. Google has made provisions for that also. Just
go to Menu>shared links and you can find the images you shared. Now you can
remove the images you don’t want others to look at. Of course those who have
viewed the photo can still take a dig at you but still saves from a bigger
embarrassment.
12. Space Saving.
You can remove the backed up images from your phones. After uploading the
photos you don’t need to allocate those extra mb’s or in many cases those extra
gb’s. You can remove these photos. You need to get to Menu> settings>
free up device storage. Photos will come with the ways in which you can save
some extra space.
Well that’s it from my side. Now you can try these features and come up
with a whole a new set of innovative ideas to make the best of these new
features.
You can go to the below link to know further about the photo sharing
feature of Photos app
