The estimated reading time for this post is 8 minutes
If you’d rather spend more time taking photos than organizing them, you’ll be impressed with Google Photos, a brand new service that give you unlimited storage for your photos and organizes them for you. If those features aren’t enough to convince you to try Google Photos, then perhaps you’ll be impressed with the magical features it offers.
When you return home from a trip you may be too busy catching up with work, laundry and other fun you missed while you were away. When the kids are little you might be too busy changing diapers, teaching them to ride a bike and helping them with homework. Organizing your photos may be a task you’ll get to later.
But you don’t and then you have thousands of photos to organize into albums. Google Photos will organize and enhance your photos, giving you more creative ways of finding and seeing your photos. Within moments, Google Photos does what would take you a very, very long time to accomplish.
About Google Photos
Google Photos is a free service from Google that gives you unlimited storage of your photos and videos and creates amazing Stories, enhancements, videos, panoramas and collages from your photos. Your photos are organized according to subjects, time and place. You can search your photos even if you haven’t tagged them.
Google Photos is available on your computer and mobile devices. You can share your photos and Google’s creations with others, even if they don’t have Google photos or a Google account.
Auto-Backup
Google Photos gives you unlimited storage for all of your photos up to 16 MP in size and for videos of up to 1080p. If you have photos and/or videos that are larger in size, you can either allow Google Photos to compress them or use up some of your Google Drive space.
Photos are backed up automatically so you don’t have to worry about manually uploading them to Google Photos. You can choose to delete any photos off of your device that have been backed up to Google Photos if you want to free up storage space on your device.
The Magic
Google Photos has amazing features that will probably make you a fan very quickly. The service goes far beyond mere storage and creates amazing new artwork from your photos. What would take you hours, days, weeks, months or more to do, Google Photos does in an instant.
You can review what creations Google Photos has for you, then Save them to Google Photos or delete them.
Because Google Photos has unlimited storage, you won’t have to worry about using up your storage space with Google’s creations. When in doubt, keep them!
Stories
Google Photos takes photos from a time period and location to create Stories of your life. These animated albums start with a moving cover photo and trace your journey across the days and miles. You can see pages with your photos arranged artistically, including ones that Google Photos has enhanced,
Don’t remember what that photo was of? Stories sometimes include the name of the place in a caption.
You can also add captions to any of the photos in your Stories or edit the ones Google has included.
Stories also may include moving maps that trace your travel as you continue on your trip.
Here’s a Story from photos of a trip to Longwood Gardens I took earlier this year:
Wednesday Afternoon at Longwood Gardens
Notice the last photo in the Story has been enhanced by Google Photos. You can add photos to Stories and edit the photos within Stories.
Collages
Google Photos takes images of similar subjects and arranges them artistically for you in collages.
Enhancements
Your beautiful photos may be chosen to be enhanced by Google Photos with filters and frames. If you Save them you may find these enhanced photos in your Stories.
Google Photos seemed to choose images of nature and scenery for enhancements, rather than photos of people.
GIF’s/Short Videos
You may hold down the shutter button to get rapid-fire photos of a scene, then pick the best one later. Google takes similar photos to make short videos or GIF’s of your images.
These can be very cool or somewhat comical. You can see movement, but sometimes the movement doesn’t make much sense, such as people moving in the background of shots. Still, the GIF’s are fun and you can delete any that you don’t like.
Panorama
If you’ve ever tried to take a panoramic shot, you know how difficult it can be to get the shot you want from beginning to end, maintaining a constant speed while keeping the camera steady.
Google Photos creates panoramic photos for you, stitching together related photos to make a combined panoramic shot.
Check out this panorama of a castle Google Photos created:
Google Photos even reminded me which castle is in a Story it created using the Panorama:
Search
You can search your photos by keywords, even if you haven’t tagged your photos. If Google Photos recognizes the term, it will show you all of your photos of that subject.
Organizing Your Photos
Google Photos organizes your photos by subject matter so you can find photos more easily. Categories are created such as:
People – facial recognition technology works to find all photos of your most frequent subjects.
Places – see all photos from places you’ve been.
Subjects – what do you take pictures of the most?
Seeing these categories is a fascinating lesson of what and whom you take pictures of most frequently. In People I have all of my family members. Places were locations I’ve visited most and where I’ve lived. My most popular subjects include Dogs, Cars, Sky, Sunset, Beaches, and Flowers.
Detection isn’t perfect. For example, I took a picture of a cruise ship that happened to have a car in front of it and Google Photos put that photo in the Cars category. It also thought my daughter’s prom was her wedding.
Editing
Google Photos allows you to edit your photos within the app. You can crop, add filters, adjust lighting and more. You can also edit photos on your computer using the Google Photos website.
Sharing
The default setting for your Google Photos is private. Others can’t see your photos unless you share them.
You can share your photos and Google Photos creations from the app or website via email, text message and social media. The person who receives your photos and creations doesn’t need to have Google Photos or even a Google account to view them.
When you share your Google Photos Story with others, they will get a link they can click on to see the Story you’ve shared. You can delete the link from your Google Photos account later if you change your mind about sharing.
Getting Started
You can use Google Photos for free on your computer and mobile devices. Be sure to use both the website and the app to get the most out of the service.
Apps
To get started using Google Photos on your mobile device, download the app to your mobile device:
Sign into your Google account and give permissions. Check the box to allow Back Up & Sync but don’t give permission for “Use Mobile Data to backup.” Your initial backup of your photos will most likely eat up most of your mobile data allowance for the month! Wait until you’re connected to Wi-Fi for Google Photos to upload your photos.
Be sure to allow notifications so Google Photos can alert you when a new creation is ready for you to see!
Uploading Photos
You can use Google Photos with photos on your mobile device and your computer. Uploading your photos onto Google Photos is the first step towards using the service and seeing the magic that Google Photos can do with your pictures!
Mobile
After you’ve downloaded the app and given your permissions, Google Photos begins the work of uploading your photos and making the magic happen. You don’t need to worry about uploading individual photos, Google makes it happen for you.
You can begin to see the magic happen even before all of your photos are uploaded. You can go to Assistant by swiping right to see what creations Google Photo has for you. Preview the creations and Save any you want to keep.
Google Photos took about 2 days to upload all of my photos from my phone. An update to the iPhone app which was released on Saturday promised to speed up the process, and it did. I wasn’t connected to Wi-Fi much during those two days which slowed the upload process.
Google Photos on Your Computer
Head to the Google Photos website and sign into your Google account.
To upload photos from your computer, go to the Google Photos page and click App Downloads in the left column.
You’ll be able to download Google Photos backup software to your computer that you can use to upload photos automatically from your hard drive and an SD card. You can opt out of using photos from files or SD cards.
Let the Magic begin!
Your Thoughts
Have you tried Google Photos yet? Do you like the idea of unlimited storage? Are you excited about Google Photos creating Stories, collages, panoramas and enhancements? Do you like the way Google Photos organizes your photos? Share your thoughts with us in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
Just the post I was waiting for 🙂
Honestly speaking, I saw a few posts around about Google Photos, but I just didn’t take time to read through as I knew you’d be sharing it, and you always explain things so well here.
I loved all that I read, and I think I’d be glued to Google photos once I start off with it as I love images and sharing them all. Recently started my Google Collections and I am amazed at the number of likes and shares people opt for, so they do love images – the nice ones.
Yes, the unlimited storage, and the fact you can share it with anyone, and it’s all free are all too good to miss out on! And you can share stories, collages, panoramas and all such things too! s Loved your collection – yes the last one seems enhanced. I’m keeping this aside for the coming weekend to look into deeper as I want to make the most of it.
Thanks for sharing it with us. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, I’m doing the same thing. I am hooked on Google Photos. I get so excited when I receive a notification that a new creation is ready for me. I’m having so much fun reliving memories and sharing them with others. I can’t get enough of Google Photos!
You’re going to have a lot of fun with it, Harleena. This would be great if it were either unlimited storage, full of creations or organization of your photos but it’s all three for free!
I hope you really enjoy Google Photos and your new creations, Harleena!
Hi Carolyn,
I’ll have to try this. I did have a program that automatically uploaded my photos, but it did it before I had edited and resized them! I soon used all the space up. This might be better if it’s unlimited space. I find now I get emails and the images aren’t attached, I have to download them from a server, which is a little slow. There are millions of spring flowers along the river and canals now, but the weather is terrible, rain and wind! I hope it will improve, I have a carnival to photograph next weekend!
Hi Mike, Yes, I thought of you while I was writing this article. What a perfect place for you to store your photos. Unlimited means you’ll never run out of space. And I can see you doing an article about your edits vs. Google Photos’ Creations!
I found that it is really useful topic for me. You know..? I’m a selfy guy, that love take self-photos.
However, I found that my phone isn’t enough memory for storing those photos. I used dropbox and other online storage service, but the free account is limited space.
It sounds like Google photo service is a great program..
Thanks for sharing
Hi Kimsea, Exactly. Unlimited space means you can free up space on your devices that was being taken up by photos. Most services have limited free space and don’t make magical creations out of your photos.
I hope you enjoy Google Photos, Kimsea!
Carolyn, thanks for responding and advice. I’ll learn more about how to use the service and take it a trail..!
Have nice day..
Hi Kimsea, I’m so excited for you to try Google Photos! Be sure to let us know how you like it. 🙂
Awesome article! Thanks for all the great information Carolyn!!! Going to go upload photos right now!
Hi Jackie, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you’re going to give Google Photos a try. I think you’ll really have fun with it!
I have a couple of questions.
•will the photos continue to upload on my iPhone after I exit the App?
•After all my photos are uploaded can I delete them from my phone? But still access them on Google Photos.
Thanks
Hi Jane, Great questions! Yes, you can close the app and Google Photos will continue to upload your photos. Be sure that Background App Refresh is enabled for the app on your iPhone. See, Background App Refresh – Make the Best Use of Your Apps for more information on that feature.
If you need to free up space on your iPhone, you can delete your photos from the device and rely on Google Photos. Be aware that Google Photos stores your photos in the Cloud, not on your iPhone so you’ll need Internet access to see, edit and share your photos. You also won’t be able to use your other iPhone photo editing apps with photos stored on Google Photos unless that iPhone app specifically allows it. As Google Photos is only a few days old, it doesn’t sync with other iPhone photo editing apps yet.
I hope this helps, Jane!
oops I forgot my other questions
•how many photos can be stored on an iPhone, do you know?
•Do you know if selected photo folders can be deleted?
Thanks.
Hi Jane, Wow, more great questions!
You can check how much space is taken up by photos on your iPhone by going into:
Settings => General => Usage => Manage Storage
This will show you how many GB of space you have and how much Photos is using.
How many photos can be stored on your iPhone depends on how much storage you have on your iPhone (16, 32, 64 or 128 GB) and the size of the photos.
You can delete photos from Google Photos, but not entire folders at once.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful questions, Jane!
This sounds very good. But, I have a question about privacy of the photos. Also, from my mac, can I choose to only upload selected pics from iPhoto (now Photos). I was just getting reading to pay for a larger account in Drop Box and put my photos there. hummmm…..now, maybe not.
Thanks for always keeping us (your fans) up-to-date. I have a Google account but never received notice of this feature.
Hi Paddy, Yes, this is very cool that you have free unlimited storage for your photos and videos with Google Photos.
You can certainly choose which photos get uploaded by not selecting auto-upload. You would have to manually upload the photos you want to store on Google Photos. Depending on the number of photos you may wish to use auto-upload to upload them all and then delete the ones you don’t want to store there.
I’m not sure what your privacy question is but just to let you know that the setting for who can see your photos is private. You choose with whom you share your photos. You can share them with individuals via text message or email. Or you can share them with others on social media.
I hope this helps, Paddy!
Hi Carolyn,
Yes, I am excited. The unlimited storage was enough for me to be excited, but the other features seems to be awesome as well. The only thing on my mind right now is if I’ll continue to keep photos on iCloud and Dropbox, or if I should go for Google photos 100%.
Thanks!
Hi Jens, Yes, you can upload your photos to Google Photos and then decide what you want to do with your other storage options. Unlike Dropbox and iCloud, Google Photos is 100% free for unlimited storage. That’s pretty compelling.
hi it’s me again, but 24 hours later.
Google Photos is chugging away but I’m concerned that the number of photos to go has only dropped from 13646 to 12532…in about 24 hours. Is this to be expected?
Do you have a link on how to back up iPhone photos to a PC and then clear the phone camera roll?
Hi Jane, Yes, the upload process can take a while, especially if you aren’t around Wi-Fi constantly. The good news is that Google Photos doesn’t wait until the upload process is complete to begin to make creations for you.
With Google Photos you don’t have to back up the photos to your computers, unless you want to. Google Photos keeps your photos in the Cloud so they don’t take up space on your computer.
If you want to transfer your photos onto your computer and then delete them, you can use iTunes to do that if you sync to iTunes using your computer. Check out Apple Support for more information.
I LOVE this idea! As you know when we went to China in 2012, I had over 7500 photos from all the kids and myself. I put all of them in Flickr.com Google Pictures would be a great archive. Last month I visited New Zealand, took over 2000 pics and didn’t have a cloud storage except Flickr, which I like very much. I like tagging each photo and putting it in to a set/folder/group whatever so I can easily find them.
How would you compare this to Flickr.com?
Hi Robin, I’m a big fan of Flickr too. Flickr gives you 1 TB (1000 GB) of storage for free. You can make albums and share your photos with others and make your albums public. Flickr – The Solution to Your Photo Storage Issues
But Google Photos gives you unlimited storage and makes the albums for you. Why not give it a try? Google Photos is free and easy. Give it a go (and then please share your China album link with me! 🙂 ).
Hey Carolyn,
Wow, that’s a pretty cool service now and I loved how your photos from Iceland turned out. I can’t imagine though it sorting pictures the way I have them in folders. I don’t keep all my photos on my phone, I clear them out after awhile.
I do upload my photos though to Flickr like you suggested just so I’ll have them in a few different places. I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt to have them on Google as well. I looks like it can be a little spoiling though, the pictures are really cool to see but I didn’t see where you mentioned privacy? What if we want some of them left private.
I may look into this though, thank you for sharing this. You do stay on top of things and boy am I glad.
Hope you’re having a great week Carolyn,
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Great question. Yes, photos are kept private by default in Google Photos. You can share them on Facebook, Twitter, email and text message. For the Stories you get a link to share. Others don’t need to have a Google account or use Google Photos to see your Stories or photos.
Yes, you can have Google upload photos from your computer and phone. It will find them in folders on your computer, but it won’t pull your photos from Flickr. I still like Flickr and will continue to use it, especially with albums I want to make public.
But Google Photos is unlimited and very exciting the way it organizes your photos, lets you search your photos and makes creations.
Google recently launched in I/O 2015 google photos app. its really awesome for all photographer lover easily backup, share delete similar and many featured must have app
Hi Ethan, Yes, it’s hard to imagine any easier photo app. Google Photos does the work for you of uploading and organizing your photos. The creations are a wonderful bonus. And all of this is free!
Great review! People are uploading thousands of photos to enjoy Google Photos, but most photographs are only from recent mobile devices. Google Photos’ biggest challenge, how to upload analog snapshots, has also been solved.
This Businesswire story explains:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150604005270/en#.VXBQP0ZHanM
Mitch Goldstone
President & CEO
ScanMyPhotos.com