To help you get more out of the upcoming holidays, Google is rolling out a few features that, while not entirely new, are making their first appearances on Android. The features cover a variety of categories, including new widgets to make an Android smartphone's home screen more useful, simplified reminders for the entire family, and even the ability to lock and unlock certain cars with a Pixel 6.
Some might have been living with the presumption that Google's so-called Photos product is simply a mobile gallery app or cloud storage for images. While that's partly correct, Google has also managed to turn into something more, usually with its typical machine learning magic sauce. From social sharing to printed photos, Google has added some value on top of an ordinary photo gallery on the cloud. One feature in particular, however, was oddly limited in its availability, but that changes now that Memories has finally broken out from phones and onto the Web.
A few years ago, Google teased the almost magical ability that would allow people to remove "distracting objects" from photos, whether they be a fence or innocent bystanders. While that functionality has been available on some photo editing software like Photoshop, it was far from automatic nor convenient for mere mortals. It took more than four years for that moment to finally come, and Pixel 6 owners can now confidently take photos even when they know there are people or things lurking in the background.
It seems that Google is going on a spree to turn its web browser into a portal to its other products and services. Whether that campaign will ruffle competitors' and regulators' feathers remains to be seen, but there doesn't seem to be any stopping Google from its push. Most of these new and upcoming features revolve around search results and the New Tab Page, the latter of which is getting a new module that will surface your Google Photos whenever you think of opening a new browser tab.
Android users will soon get access to a special Google Photos feature that was previously only available to Pixel users: Locked Folder. The feature aims to replace those shady apps used to hide photos and videos from nosy people, bringing with it the benefit of having your more sensitive media backed up to the cloud.
Today, Google announced a wide array of updates for Android that covers several different apps and services. From accessibility and Assistant to Photos and even something for Google TV, these new updates not only add new features but, in some cases, they're bringing functionality that was at one point exclusive to Pixel over to other Android smartphones.
Google's photo printing subscription service has received mixed feedback since it launched in 2019. The premium service left AI to select ten photos to print and ship to subscribers every month, leaving users little choice on the matter. Since then, however, Google has expanded its photo printing options, and this time it's growing the service further by growing the sizes you can choose from. More importantly, you can also keep yourself safe while preserving memories by letting Google deliver those photos directly to your door.
Google Photos has a feature in which the system intelligently gathers and surfaces sets of photos called "Memories." Users are notified that Google Photos created a "Memory" for them - usually a gallery of images - that they'll then be encouraged to look through and interact with. This smart system allows Google Photos to remain active in the minds and on the screens of users even when the user isn't usually taking the time to sort through, look at, download, or share their photos in the Google Photos system.
A huge portion of computing in the past years has focused on the "cloud", but there have been new movements recently to bring computing back down to Earth, so to speak. Just as microcomputers marked the decentralization of computing away from mainframes, hybrid and edge computing are now bringing some of the responsibility back to on-premise devices, such as IoT appliances and NAS. To keep up with the trends, Synology is pushing a big version 7.0 update to its DiskStation Manager OS, introducing features that not only adapt to the complex needs of users and businesses but also set up Synology NAS devices to become makeshift Google Photos replacements.
Google Photos no longer offers free, unlimited photo and video uploads, with the controversial change to how backup counts against your account storage coming into effect today. Until now, Google had allowed an unlimited amount of photos and videos to be saved to Google Photos - at "High Quality" - without that taking up space in your free or paid storage.
The big Google Photos change is almost upon us, and if you've been enjoying free, unlimited uploads since the cloud storage service launched then you're about to get an unpleasant surprise. Switching to a paid model will help keep Photos around, Google argues, but the good news is that there's a decent chance you could already be paying for an alternative.
There are many ways to share photos these days and most use social media for that purpose. Of course, those are mostly public by default and harder to control, and some resort to just sharing links to their online photo storage in private. Still, others go old-school and send photos by email. That can be a hassle for recipients if they end up having to upload images to Google Photos anyway but, fortunately, Google has finally heard the cries of Gmail users or at least some of them.