OK, before some of you write me this week asking why I am pushing a Google product again let me head off your questions. No, I do not own Google stock, I am not paid by them, I do not have any ties to the tech-giant, I have never received a kickback or even a thank you from Google and as far as I know, I have no living or deceased relatives working for them. I write about things I think will help you and you ask me questions about.
So today we look at an app that is often used and ignored, Google Photos (photos.google.com). This app can be used on both Android and iOS devices. Although, today I will be speaking to Android devices. It is already on your Android device unless you have removed it. There are several “main” features available which I have mention a few months back but here is a quick list of some of them. It can automatically back up all photos taken to the cloud. You can access the photos from any internet connected device. The big news is that Google Photos provides unlimited free storage when you opt to save your photos in their “high quality” setting. You can save them at their original quality but those photos count toward your total Google Drive storage.
Now let’s look at some of the more advanced and some amazing, to me, features. You can search by things seen in the pictures. Correct, you do not have to label them or anything. For instance, I searched my photos for “vacation” and it filters for a second then up pops pictures from vacations I have been on. Well, ok, I thought this is easy since I have my phone set to record the GPS location of each picture I take. So it is just checking that location to identify me being out of the area. Wrong! I searched for “swimming” and it found many pictures of people in pools I had taken over the years. OK, let’s try “swimming pool” and you guessed it only pics of pools popped up. There were a few of a lake and river but wow it was spot on in most cases. One more at the bottom of the page to show you its great searching abilities.
Finally, for this article, I searched, “smoke” it found six photos. One of a fire I took in 2011, three of random people that were smoking in the background, another of a big fluffy cloud above a building (ok, not perfect but it looked like smoke to me too) and finally a picture of me at a buddy get together smoking a cigar from five years ago. Try it yourself if you have been using Google Photos. To me, this is amazing technology.
The last one I will mention this week is the ability to edit your photos. This is found in many photo apps so it does not have a “wow” factor. You can make the colors pop a little, crop it, rotate it and a couple of other basic edits you can perform. However, another Google app I would highly recommend adding to your phone for editing is, “Snapseed.” It will really allow you to make many types of edits. You will be able to make your photos look very professional. Download it to your device at the Google Play store as you do all other apps.
More about Google Photos next week.
Below is another sample search I did on my photos. The faces have been blurred for privacy…except for mine.
