Google+ may have been the butt of a million social network jokes, but before you cheer too loudly for its demise you should also give it the credit it deserves for launching one of Google's best products. The writing is on the wall for Google+, its creator confirmed today, beginning a ten month long sunsetting process that will end in August 2019.
Google is pushing out an update to Google Photos that helps users identify their favorite images, helping locate them among the mass of hundreds or thousands of images captured with their smartphone. The new feature, once it arrives for everyone, lets users put a "star" on images they like the most, an icon that automatically earmarks them for the Favorites folder.
Google Photos users on iPhone and iPad are getting a new feature, with Google Lens adding its visual search and more in an update to the app. Announced back at Google IO 2017, and first released on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, Lens has until now been limited to Android devices.
![Google Clips available now – but AI camera isn’t impressing reviewers [Updated]](https://c.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/google-clips-1.jpg)
Google Clips, the company's smart camera, is finally shipping, though whether it's worth spending $249 on an AI to take your photos seems to be questionable. Announced last year alongside the Pixel 2, the standalone camera promises to use the same smarts that power Google Photos to snap stills and short videos of the entertaining things that kids and pets do to earn their keep, allowing you to stay in the moment in the process.
This week the folks at Google released a new version of their photos app, Google Photos. Android users will likely be first in the update line for a number of new features, including the most important one: free stuff support. Everyone loves free stuff, and Google knows how everyone loves free stuff, so they've added more free stuff to Google Photos.
Smartphone cameras are great at just capturing moments and breathtaking vistas, but that’s not the only thing they’re used for anymore. They’re also being used to capture notes, whiteboards, documents, and, ironically, printed photos. Google even has a dedicated app for that last bit called PhotoScan, a scanner for photos. Although useful for some, it had one odd behavior. It didn’t immediately save your scanned and edited photos. Now that changes in version 1.5, bringing with it a much needed Google Photos integration.
Google Photos is making it easier for users to find pictures specifically featuring their pets, eliminating the need to search for things like 'dog.' The change is arriving for 'most countries' as of today, and it works by grouping together images that feature dogs and cats. By doing so, all of the pictures of your beloved pet are in a single place, which can be further customized to make finding these shots easier.
Today we found out that the Pixel 2 does not have the exact same "Unlimited Google Photos Uploads at Original Quality" deal that came with the first-generation Pixel. One year after launch, I remain positively shocked that Google's continued their Unlimited Google Photos Uploads at Original Quality deal with the original Google Pixel, to be entirely honest. I thought there's be some sort of catch - sort of like the catch that's included with the Pixel 2.
Just as shatterproof doesn't exactly mean scratchproof, unlimited doesn't mean forever either. At least, unlike ISPs, when Google says "unlimited", it does mean "unlimited". But, of course, there's always a catch. Google promised would-be Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 owners unlimited "full resolution" cloud storage on Google Photos when it announced the new phones. It didn't, naturally, mention on stage footnote #2, which basically says that such is true only until 2020.
If you're a heavy Google Photos user, good news: it appears the 2,000 image limit for albums on the service has been eradicated, or at least reduced to some degree. Users are reporting the ability to add more (in some cases, considerably more) photos to albums that have hit the previous 2,000 limit, indicating Google has silently eliminated the restriction.
An open-source gallery app called, simply, "Camera Roll - Gallery" has been released for Android. I should say "has been "unreleased" because it's not quite ready for prime-time yet, but it's got so much potential, I can't wait to tell you about it. This app is super simple, was designed with Material Design principles in full effect, and it's free to download and use. Basically it's a return to the basic Gallery app for Android users who don't ONLY want to use Google Photos.
In mid-May, Google announced a new inbound feature for Google Photos called Suggested Sharing; with it, users are presented with sharing suggestions made possible via machine learning. That feature is rolling out to users this week, the company has announced, making Google Photos even easier to use; the shared libraries feature is rolling out, too. Once it arrives on your own phone, you'll be prompted to share certain photos with your friends, and the entire process will only take a single tap.