Google debuted its own photo storage service dubbed Google Photos early this year. Now, the leading tech company is giving the service its first major makeover.
The company unveiled a few significant updates to Google Photos during the Nexus event on Tuesday, Sept. 29, with the aim to make sharing pictures much easier than ever before.
Google Photos has been a top iOS app since its launch in May. It has already been installed on Android devices over 100 million times, which perhaps implies how popular the app is to millions of people across the globe.
"Google Photos is the home for all your photos and videos, searchable and organized by the people, places and things that matter," reads the product description of Google Photos.
The update comes with three impressive features. Here is a rundown of what's new with the app.
Chromecast Support
The update now allows a user to push the photos straight to a TV with Chromecast plugged in it.
What's interesting with the new feature is that it lets anyone using the app to pause sharing via Chromecast, allowing the user to select what to share to the audience to prevent the risk of showing images not intended for sharing.
An animated GIF or video the user stored in Google Photos can also be displayed via this feature.
People Labeling
This new feature lets users add labels to persons in photos with the use of a machine learning technology. With this, finding an image stored in the app is now a piece of cake, because users can now easily search for photos of a particular person by just using the facial recognition technology and the label assigned to that person.
The people labeling feature is currently only available on the Google Photos Android app. It is expected to land on the iOS app and the Web in the near future.
Shared Photo Albums
This new feature allows families and friends to collaborate on a photo album. When the user is subscribed to a photo album, he or she will be notified once anyone adds a photo to it. The user can also send out an invitation to another app user for collaboration, just like what anyone does with Google Docs.
This feature is said to be included in the app later this year.
