Five New Google Photos Features Coming to IPhone Before Android
Google Photos is currently rolling out a number of interesting and useful updates , but surprisingly only for iPhone. These features, like a redesigned photo view, an updated action menu, and actionable “badges,” will be coming to Android users “soon.” For now, here’s everything new in Google Photos for iOS:
Lite mode for the application
Let there be light. From now on, Google Photos will match your iOS theme, so the user interface will switch to light or dark depending on your system settings. The addition of a light theme doesn’t excite me much, since my phone is always in dark mode. However, it will likely be a welcome feature for many people who prefer to have light mode on at least during the day, if not all the time.
Data about viewed photos
Google also adds useful information above each photo you open. This includes the date, time, and location where the photo was taken. This information has always been available, but you had to manually select to view it each time. I especially appreciate the fact that you no longer have to tap to view a photo’s geotag.
Optimized Action Menu
Next to this sliding data, you will find an action button. When you click it, you will see the following actions: About, Google Lens, Create, Broadcast, Save As (works for Live Photos taken on iPhone), Download, or Delete from device.
Avid Google Photos users will notice that some existing actions are missing, but Google hasn’t removed them. These features are now under the Add to (+) button on the bottom bar, which now lets you organize photos into albums, archive photos, or move them to your private folder.
New ways to manage photo stacks
You can also manage photo stacks and burst mode photos by tapping the new action button next to the thumbnails of those photos. This menu lets you remove items from a stack, unpack the entire group, select multiple photos to apply actions to all, and edit your best selection in a stack.
Icons for quick actions
Google Photos for iOS now has a few useful icons that let you quickly change a photo’s category, play or pause a Live Photo, save shared photos to your library, and back up photos or manage storage. These icons appear above the photo you’re viewing and let you perform actions with a single tap.
All of these features are now available in Google Photos for iPhone, but there’s no firm timeline for the Android version at the time of writing. Google says they’ll be coming to your Android phone soon, but hasn’t yet given an expected release date.