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Q. I read your recent article, 25 New Tech Tools I Use in My Daily Life, which was really helpful to me. I’m interested to know why you use Google Photos? I need a better way to organize and back up my photos and I’m wondering if Google Photos could work well for me too.
Can you explain more about why you use Google Photos?
A. Great question. I have received more questions about Google Photos from that article than any other tech tool I mentioned.
I’m happy to explain why Google Photos is my favorite photo service.
Google Photos is filled with features that make organizing, preserving and enhancing my photos easier.
Automatic Backups
When was the last time you took the time to back up your photos on your phone? Do you back up every time you take a photo? Probably not.
Imagine never having to worry about backing up your photos again. Google Photos can give you that peace of mind.
Automatic backups are the easiest and safest way to back up your photos on your phone (and tablet, if you take photos with your tablet). But not all photo apps are created equally.
Many apps say they will automatically back up your photos. But when you check the app, you may see that your photos have not been backed up since the last time you opened the app.
Google Photos backs up photos and video automatically, soon after you take them. So long as you’re connected to the Internet, Google Photos can back up your photos and videos right away. That way, you won’t lose those beach photos should your phone die when you accidentally drop it in the waves.
[tip] The app has a setting where it can wait until you are connected to Wi-Fi to back up your photos if you don’t want to use data when backing up your photos. [/tip]
Unlimited Storage
Update: As of June 1, 2021, Google no longer offers unlimited storage for photos. See Google Blog, Updating Google Photos’ storage policy to build for the future
When you set up Google Photos, you have a choice of unlimited photos at a lower resolution (16mp max) or full resolution photos that count against your free space on Google.
Google gives users 15GB of space for free, but Gmail and Google Docs count against that storage space. If you choose unlimited lower resolution photos at Google Photos your stored photos don’t count against your Google storage space.
You may wonder about storing your photos at a lower resolution. The limit for Google Photos is 16mp per photo, so if you use a smartphone with a camera of 16mp or lower, you should not be compromising the quality of your photos.
[note]The vast majority of smartphones have cameras under 16mp. For example, the iPhone 7 Plus and the Samsung Galaxy S8 have 12mp cameras [/note]
This article from The Huffington Post indicates that, even with a higher resolution camera, you may not be able to tell the difference between Google Photo storage at lower resolution and a full-resolution photo: Does Google Photos Compress The Life Out Of Your Pics? Here’s What Our Experiment Revealed.
If you can tell the difference between lower and full resolution photos, you could pay for additional storage from Google. Prices start at $1.99/month for 100GB of space.
So you may want to try out Google Photos lower resolution to see if you can tell the difference before paying for more storage space with full resolution photos.
I have an iPhone 7 Plus with a 12mp camera, and the resolution of its photos saved Google Photo’s lower resolution option seems sharp enough for my untrained eyes.
Available Everywhere
Google Photos also offers the convenience of being available on phones, tablets and computers. Download Google Photos to your computer to back up photos you store on your computer. Use the app to use Google Photos on your phone and tablet.
If you take screenshots, or download photos from websites or emails, you can also use Google Photos to back up those photos automatically.
You can also access your photos anywhere you’re logged into your Google account. If you take a photo on your phone, you can get it on your computer right away with Google Photos.
No more worrying about transferring photos back and forth between devices.
Assistant
Assistant is a feature that’s like having a magician transform your photos into works of art. The Assistant can create GIFs, panoramic photos, stylized photos, collages, videos and more. It can add filters to give you a more artistic view of the world.
I can, and sometimes do, edit photos myself to get creative with them. But I’m often delighted to see what Assistant has created. I can save creations I like, and discard any I don’t.
Albums
Google Photos can create albums for you, grouping images by time and place. If you’re on a trip, it may add maps to the album to help you remember where the photos were taken.
After you start using Google Photos and have uploaded your photos, check the Albums section to see what albums it has created for you. Google Photos will go back to the first photos you added and create albums throughout the years. As with Assistant, you can save or discard these created album.
You can edit these albums, add captions and photos, delete unwanted photos, then share them with others.
If you want to create your own albums, you can do that easily using Google Photos on your phone or on your computer.
Printed Photo Books
Sometimes seeing your photos on a screen isn’t enough. You can now order printed photo books from Google Photos. I ordered a hardcover photo book from Google Photos as a gift for my husband for our anniversary and the quality of the book was very impressive.
These are easy to create, especially if you already have an album that you want to use. You select how you want the photo(s) to appear on the page, how many pages you want and what cover you want.
Tap the three stacked lines icon in the app and choose Photo Books to start creating one.
Searching
If you have loads of photos, you know finding the one you want can be a challenge. As Google is a search service, Google Photos’ searching capabilities are impressive, as you might expect.
You can search for people, objects, places, dates, and even “screenshots” and “selfies.” You can search Creations to see all that Assistant has created for you.
If you tell Google Photos who people are, you can search for them by name.
No need to tag photos (because seriously, who remembers to tag photos?), Google figures out what’s in the photo so you can search for it more easily.
These searching features makes finding the photo you want much easier.
Location
If you can’t remember where you took a photo, Google Photos can help. When you’re viewing the photo, tap the i to view where the photo was taken, including the coordinates and location on a map.
Sharing Is Caring
Google Photos makes it easy to share photos with others, even if they don’t have a Google account (yes, there are people who don’t have a Google account). You can share to social media, or use email or text message to share photos. Google Photos can also create a link to share photos and albums with others.
Recently Google Photos made sharing easier by trying to identify people in the photos and suggesting that you share with them directly.
You can also designate one person to share all of your photos with, so you don’t need to be sending photos all the time to that person. The Shared Library feature makes it easier to give full access to your photos to someone else. You can turn off sharing if you change your mind.
Google Photos also shows you which photos you’ve shared, and with whom, so you know if you already sent a photo to someone.
You can share up to 1500 photos with someone at once. But you might want to think twice before you swamp a friend with 1500 photos…
Easy Deleting from Multiple Devices
Clearing out unwanted photos can be cumbersome, especially if you keep photos on multiple devices. You may think you deleted every photo of your ex on your phone, only to discover you kept a copy on your computer. Yuck…
Google Photos lets you delete photos from all of your devices at once, without having to delete the photo from each device individually.
Also see, Think You Deleted Your Photos? Photos You Send to Trash May Still Be on Your Phone.
Archive
Google Photos also recently introduced an Archive section that lets you keep photos, but removes them from your Photos section. This feature is useful for photos you want to keep separate but don’t want to delete.
Rediscover This Day
Google Photos can remind you of what you were doing on this day in years past. You’ll see a collage of photos you’ve taken on this day in previous years. If you’re a fan of Facebook’s On This Day feature, you’ll like Rediscover This Day.
What’s cool about this feature is that you’ll be reminded of images, even if you didn’t post them on Facebook. The photos you’ll see on Google Photos Rediscover This Day may be very different from the ones you see on Facebook.
What Else You Need to Know
Google Photos doesn’t have to be the only photo service you use. Many photo services offer similar features and you can use multiple ones. Just as you should back up your files to more than one place, you can back up your photos to multiple places.
By backing up your photos to an additional service, you may be able to preserve a full resolution version of your photos, if the unlimited lower resolution option of Google Photos seems like a compromise to you.
If you’re an Amazon Prime member, check out Prime Photos that gives free unlimited storage (with your Prime membership) and lets you share your photos easily with other family members. Learn more at Amazon Family Vault for Photos – Another New Benefit for Prime Members.
Flickr also has free storage for up to 1 TB of your photos. See, Flickr – The Solution to Your Photo Storage Issues.
Availability
Google Photos is available free for:
Your Thoughts
Have you used Google Photos? What feature is most compelling for you? Do you have a different photo service you recommend?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
Happy Monday 🙂
Oh yes! I completely agree with you there – nothing like Google photos, and I learned about it all from one of your earlier posts I think. Of course, I have not really explored all the details as yet, but I love the fact that it stores up everything once you set it all up. Not to mention the notifications you receive in your Gmail itself (as I am usually logged into it while I work), so makes it easy to check up what all is created.
Sharing the photos is another great feature, though I haven’t gone much into it yet, but yes, have seen pictures others have shared with me. I can hardly make out the difference between the resolutions all that much, so the free version works well so far. I do think it IS amazing!
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hey Carolyn,
I am not a big fan of Google photos because of its slow loading. I used to have a bunch of photos but not now.
I think it has been upgraded to some new features which seem to be effective.
I would like to try it again sometime.
Glad to know about it.
~Ravi
Hi Ravi, I haven’t had a problem with Google Photos being slow, but other commenters seem to have had the same issue. One said the problem has been resolve so you may want to consider giving Google Photos another try to see whether it’s faster for you now.
Hi Carolyn,
We all love Google Photos, although git is bit slow as compared to it’s competitors, but considering it’s features, I love it like you do.
~ Donna
Hi Donna, I’m glad you enjoy using Google Photos too. I haven’t had a problem at all with the service being slow. Even if it were, the features are so useful that I would still use Google Photos.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us, Donna.
Hello Carolyn,
Google photos is such a good one for keeping our photos and memories safe. I have been using this app from very long and
it has satisfied me till date.
Yeah between some time the app was working real slow which was not pleasant to see but the new update is just worth for
a shot.
Thanks for the share.
Shantanu.
Hi Shantanu, I’m glad you’re using Google Photos too. I haven’t had any difficulties with the service being slow. I’m glad that got sorted for you.
Hi CAROLYN,
Great Piece of Information Over Here!
It’s nice to know that Google Photos backs up photos and video automatically and are available everywhere.
Unlimited storage is another awesome feature moreover we will not be compromising the quality of our photos.
Considering it’s awesome features i am going to use google photos.
I will tweet your post.
Thanks a lot for sharing.
Hi Manish, Thanks for sharing this post. Yes, Google Photos has a lot to offer and I’m glad so many people asked about it. I hope you enjoy using Google Photos, Manish.
Google is one of the best places to get photos/graphic, but in cases of copyright. I prefer using other photo services to create my personalized image for my blog posts.
Nice point you’ve shared though…
Hi Roy, Good point. Google Photos doesn’t have the best editing tools, probably because Assistant does so much editing for us. I use PicMonkey to edit images for this site and also for personal photos.