Android's Google Photos App Finally Has An Update Users Have Been Waiting For

On Android, Google Photos is a long-term media storage solution, since many smartphones come with it preinstalled as the default gallery app. It's the way many users browse the photos and videos they've taken, as well as how they organize and share them. To that end, the app is full of smart features that make it easier to manage your collection and effortlessly find what you're looking for in Google Photos, such as a shockingly accurate search feature powered by machine learning.

But when it comes to video, Google Photos is in some ways surprisingly lackluster. Tap on a video, and you'll find a playback screen with scant options for sharing and editing, with a few more tucked away in an overflow menu. Compared to other apps, such as the built-in Gallery and Video Player that come on Samsung Galaxy phones, it's a bare-bones experience that can prove limiting for some users.

In a recent update, Google finally added one crucial feature that the Google Photos video player has been missing on Android. Users can now change playback speed, a feature that users have requested for a number of years. Google acknowledged as much in its announcement of the feature last month, with community manager Sushmitha Varanasi writing, "This has been a top request from our community for a long time, and we're thrilled to bring this feature to life." However, the feature is slightly hidden from view. Here's how to find the new video playback controls, and how to get them if they aren't showing up for you yet.

For Google Photos users on Android who have the latest app update installed from the Google Play Store, there should now be an option to change the video playback speed shown in the video player. To find the new control, open the Google Photos app and tap on any video. On the video playback screen, tap the center of the screen to surface the video playback controls, then tap the three-dot icon in the top right of the interface. Tap Playback speed, and a menu will surface at the bottom of the screen, allowing you to select from five different speeds  — 0.25X, 0.5X, 1X, 1.5X, and 2X.

Users had been requesting the feature for several years, so it will be a welcome addition for many. While hiding such a commonly used control behind an overflow menu is arguably not the most intuitive way to implement it from a user design perspective, it is another step toward a feature-complete media management and playback experience for Google Photos users. 

Playback speed controls have been present for years in other Google products such as YouTube, and there's even a playback speed option built into the native video player inside of Chromium browsers such as Google Chrome. The new control in Google Photos began rolling out in early April 2026, so if you're still not seeing it as of this writing in mid-May, there's a good chance you've got an app update waiting for you in Google's app storefront. Google Photos was already one of the must-have photography apps for Android, but it's still nice to have a new feature that has long been common in similar apps.