This is an ongoing list including both official announcements of new features as well as things I happen to notice with the dates I noticed them. I reference the affected chapter of  my Learn Google Photos book. 

11/15/23 Chapter 4 – Screenshots, Documents, and Calendar Under Search, in the mobile app, there is now a separate section for documents with many categories. If any document or screenshot has information on an even with a date mentioned, you can set a reminder in calendar. There is also a switch you can turn on to automatically archive the photos of documents after 30 days. See official announcement here.

11/15/23 Chapter 4 – Stacks (only on mobile): When viewing the grid of all photos using the mobile app, you now have the option to ‘stack’ similar photos. Tap the 3-dot menu that is at the top of the grid and select “Stack similar photos” or find it in Settings, Preferences. Once it is turned on you will see one photo where there were 2 or more. The top photo will have a overlapping square icon with a number indicating the number of stacked photos. You can tap on the top photo to see all the others then you can change the top pick. Tap the grid icon to see all the stacked photos in a grid. Once there, you can select one and delete all the rest with the option at the bottom to “Keep 1, delete rest.” See official help screen here. 

11/1/23 Chapter 7 Magic Editor. Exclusive on Pixel 8/8+ Much more than magic eraser, you can also move objects around. See Google Blog article.

11/1/23 Chapter 7: Best Take. Exclusive on the Pixel 8/8+ phone. You can take several photos of a group of people and choose the best expression for each person. Google Photos will then put those together in a new picture. See article on Tom’s Guide.

9/27/23 Chapter 3 – When uploading using computer/web “Upload” button, you now have more choices, including transferring from iCloud and Facebook and other services/apps to digitize physical photos. See 9to5google article here.

8/30/23 Chapter 6 – Locked Folder now can backup to cloud. Access Locked Folder in Google Photos across your devices with cloud backup. Also in this announcement is a “simplified settings” screen. When you first select Google Photos settings, you will now see 6 categories of settings, click on one to see the specific settings.

8/15/23 Chapter 5 – Expanding on the “memories” carousel at the top of the library grid, there is now (rolling out) a new tab at the bottom called “Memories.” Referred to as the “Memories View ” it’s in the position where Sharing used to be. Sharing is now a 2-person icon at the top of the screen. These memories are displayed in a creative way – overlapping rounded corner rectangles and circles which dynamically display multiple photos. See official announcement here. 

7/10/23 Chapter 7 New Video effects available in Editor – mobile only. Funky effects like paper tear or light leak. Fish Eye is kinda cool, but honestly I don’t think I would ever use any of these. See the Forbes article here.

7/1/23 Chapter 10 Just noticed … if you get a collage made for you in the Memories area, you can now edit it. You should see a little paintbrush icon at the bottom. Click that and you are editing the collage.

6/12/23 Chapter 7 Some of the premium editing features that have been available on the mobile app are coming to the web version of Google Photos. Portrait Light, Background Blur, Sky colors, Color focus, and HDR require a Google One membership and are now available on the Web. See google help article here.

6/1/23 Chapter 5 Just noticed new information in each picture’s info panel in the mobile app. When you swipe up on the photo, in addition to date, filename and location, it now shows whether the photo is On Device only, or if it is Backed up and how much account storage space it takes up, if any.

5/25/23 Chapter 10 When you save a creation, it used to show up in a special place called “Saved Creations” under the Search/Explore page. Newly saved creations are no longer showing up there, but they are being saved. They’re assigned a date based on the contents and you’ll find them along with all other photos from that date. Since you probably don’t know what that date is, you can use Search, Recently added to see them.

4/27/23 Chapter 10 The MovieMaker in Chromebook’s Android App for Google Photos has a new interface and a couple new features. It can edit photos and videos right in the moviemaker, and it can add pan and zoom motion to photos in the movie. See article by 9-5 Google also Google’s Blog: 5 Tips for creating a movie on Chromebook

4/9/23 Chapter 7 I’m thinking they were just testing this out, as of May 7 I don’t see it any more. Editing a Live (iOS) or Motion (Android) photo no longer turns off motion on the edited version. On iOS, you get the choice:

2/23/23 Chapter 7 Magic Eraser, which was originally only available on Pixel phones is now available on Android and iOS (not web.) See announcement here. You must be a Google One subscriber to use this premium feature. That means you must be paying something, minimum $2/mo for Google Account storage – that makes you a Google One subscriber.

1/24/23 Chapter 7 Something that has been broken is now fixed. Using snapseed on Android, the Expand tool did not work, it always worked on iOS. Now it is fixed on Android!  (note: I tested on Samsung phone, it still appears broken on Pixel) See video: 730.SN-Text on Border

1/12/23 Chapter 2 A change in terminology. No more Backup & Sync, now it’s just backup. Personally, I think this is a bad idea. It’s important that people know that Google Photos is Syncing their photos between cloud and device, not just backing up. But … they didn’t ask me! Here is the official announcement.

1/5/23 Chapter 10 Making movies has been broken on Android for over a year. It looks like it makes it just fine but then it takes hours, days, or never to complete. You would click to play the movie and, instead, it would take you directly to the movie editor. Now it’s working again on Android! It was never broken in iOS. 

12/15/22 Chapter 9 Sharing memory highlights: If you click on a memory highlight from the top carousel, or a “Best of Month” memory from the main photo grid, you now have the ability to share the entire memory as opposed to just single photos. Click the share button then choose “Share memory” as opposed to “Share this photo.” I just noticed this recently, not sure when it was rolled out. It’s available on both Android and iOS. It’s also available on Web for the top carousel of memories. The web does not yet have the “Best of Month” memories.

9/16/22 Chapter 10 Collage Editor: I only see it on my iPhone, but it is supposed to be rolling out to Android as well – no word about web. (Dec update – now on Android) After selecting several photos, click on the + and choose collage. It instantly makes a collage for you just as always, but now there are editing options. You can drag photos to different positions on the collage, you can drag a photo within it’s position to adjust the crop, and you can select fun themes from the row at the bottom. Many of the themes are for Google One subscribers only. Read the announcement here. There are improvements to Memories as well, but I don’t see them yet on any platform.
Apr update: you can now use the Create collage and pick a single photo. then you can pick one of these artistic themes. 

7/29/22 Chapter 4 and 10 Chromebook only: new movie-maker with themes and the addition of title cards and photo editing. See official post New video editing and productivity features coming to Chromebook. This feature is not yet available, promised for fall 2022. Meanwhile, the movie maker is available on the mobile app as well as the web. See article here.

7/20/22 Chapter 5 New shortcut on the Google Photos app icon. If you longpress the Google Photos icon on your home screen, you will now see an option to view Screenshots.

7/10/22 Chapter 4 On iOS only right now – when viewing a single photo, you will see any text description below the photo. This has always been visible on the Web version (if the info pane is closed). Hopefully it will come to Android soon. (yep, it did. Don’t know when but it’s there now – 6/1/23)

7/8/22 Chapter 9 On the mobile app, looking at the photos grid – If you select one or more photos a list of sharing and other choices will pop up at the bottom. Before this change, you needed to tap the 3-dot menu to get these choices. Now there is no more 3-dot menu after selecting. The 3-dot menu still exists on the Web version, and in all versions when you open one photo – as opposed to selecting. 

5/19/22 Chapter 4 The mobile app now has an overlay of the date and place on top of the photos when you’re browsing the library view. see this article.

5/19/22 Chapter 6 You can now delete a photo from within an album. This has been possible on the web version for quite some time, now it’s available on the mobile app, both iOS and Android. When you tap the 3-dot menu (or swipe up on the photo) you will see the option to “Remove from Album” and now, also “Move to trash.” see this article.

4/2/22 Chapter 10 You can now create movies from scratch (not using the themed movies) on the Web version of Google Photos. Select photos and videos, click the + and choose Movie. Then it all works just like the mobile version.

3/29/22 Chapter 1 Managing storage in your Google account. On the mobile app, if you tap the Account button (your face or initial in upper right) then tap Account Storage, you will now see a report of how much storage you are using as well as how to delete some unwanted content like large files. This is basically the same information on the web page One.Google.com/storage, including the link to “Free up account storage.”

3/22/22 Chapter 11 & 4 Organizing albums. Google’s official blog claims to have changed the Album views to show more sorting options. I have not seen it yet. They also show a redesigned Sharing tab that differentiates among shared albums, conversations, and shared links. Once again, I don’t see it yet.

1/29/22 Chapter 5 Photos that have descriptions entered now show a badge in the web version.

12/12/21 Chapter 10 People and Pets widget for Android home screens. When you add a widget to an Android phone home screen, you’ll see a category for Google Photos. Within that are now: People and Pets and Your memories. For People and Pets, you select up to 10 faces you want. Your memories are automatic. See article here.

11/12/21 Chapter 7: The iOS version of Google Photos will now have access to premium editing tools. See article at 9to5google. You must be a member of Google One to have the premium tools. If you are, you’ll see a multicolor 1 badge on the special features. With these new tools you can do the following:

• Portrait light: Change the position and brightness of light for photos of people.  
• Blur : Blur the background on certain photos of people not captured in portrait mode.
• Color focus : Desaturate the background, while you keep the foreground color for photos of people. 
• Smart suggestions : Easy to use one-tap edits that adapt to each photo’s content. 
• HDR : Enhance brightness and contrast across the image.
• Sky Select from several palettes and adjust the color and contrast in the sky.

11/2/21 Chapter 6: The Android version of Google Photos will now offer to “Delete from Device”, even for photos that have not yet been backed up. You will see this when you open a photo and swipe up, or when you select several photos and tap the 3-dot menu. In the past, and still part of the iOS version, you could not delete a photo from device unless it had been successfully uploaded to the cloud. Now, when you tap “Delete from Device” it will display a confirmation message:

11/1/21 Chapter 5: The web version of Google Photos is now displaying Memories on the top row of the screen. Control what you see here by clicking on Settings then Memories.

10/4/21 Chapter 3: The Android version of Google Photos now has the ability to edit dates. For example, if you scanned a photo today, but you want the date of the photo to be sometime in the past, you can now swipe up on the photo and click the pencil icon next to the date. This has been available for iOS and for Web, now it’s on Android as well.

10/1/21 Chapter 3: Backup and Sync is replaced by Google Drive for Desktop. Here’s a video on how to upload photos from your computer to Google Photos using Google Drive for Desktop. See also Episode 220 of our Youtube show.

9/13/21 Chapter 5: Collages available for certain memory collections. Some of the “Spotlight on …” memories end with a collage that you can save. See Android Police article.

9/8/21 Chapter 10: Printing now includes new sizes for canvas prints, and other options. Also, when ordering prints, you have the option to have them shipped to your rather than picking up in the store. See article in Google’s Blog: All the ways to print your photos.

9/1/21 Chapter 5: On the mobile app, when you’re viewing the photo library you will see a “Best of month” highlights reel at the beginning of each month. Tap on it to view a slide show of selected photos/videos from that month. It works just like the memories section at the top. This feature is just now rolling out. If you have it, you can go back to previous years and see the monthly highlights. When you use the scroll button, you will feel a little bump when you get to a month. You may also get other highlight reels within a month if you have lots of photos that can be grouped, e.g. “Trip to the Keys.”

9/1/21 Chapter 8: If you open a photo from an album, edit it, then save a copy – the copy will now be included in the album. Before this change, the copy would be in the main library, not in the album, and would be difficult to find. If an album is shared, you will be offered the choice to share the copy in the same album.

8/25/21 Chapter 5 & Chapter 9: Shared photos are now stripped of location data. If your photo includes a location, that location will no longer be visible to people with whom you share the photos. . If it’s in an album, there is a setting to change this – click the 3-dot menu and choose Options, turn on the Share Photo Location.

8/10/21 Chapter 5: More detail for photos showing in the memory carousel. See Android Police article.

7/15/21 Chapter 5: A photo memories widget for Android. A photo memories widget has been available for iOS for a while now. See article. If you are on Android, this feature has now come to your phone. I had a hard time finding it at first because it is not labeled as a Google Photos widget – it’s called “Memories.”

7/12/21 Chapter 3: Google Backup and Sync is out; Google Drive for Desktop is in. The switch will be phasing in until Backup and Sync no longer works as of Oct. 1. See The Verge article. The only changes in the software affect Google Drive. The procedure for uploading photos from computer to Google Photos remains basically the same. You must check the box to upload new photos to Google Photos from specified folders. It is a one-way process, no syncing involved.

6/23/21 Chapter 9: Have you ever received a photo attached to an email and wanted to save it directly to Google Photos? Well, any day now, you will be able to do that with Gmail. See article by Verge. Open the photo, click the 3-dot menu and choose Save to Photos. Update 7/6/22 – it’s been made even more obvious now that you can save a photo from Gmail to Google Photos:

6/22/21 Chapter 7: The new editing system that has been on Android for a while comes to iOS, but with a limited feature set. It’s missing Markup, More, and premium editing tools like Dynamic and Portrait.

6/15/21 Chapter 4: Change to 4 tabs at bottom of app. On iOS first, then coming to Android – the Sharing button that was at the top left is moved to the bottom row of tabs and in its place is a Print Shop button.

6/3/21 Chapter 1: A change in terminology. The upload size that was called “High Quality” is now known as “Storage Saver” See full details here.

5/25/21 Chapter 8: Locked Folder announced. Pixel 3+ devices only Coming first to Pixel phones then other Androids. This is a space protected by your device screen lock where you can save your photos and videos separately, so they won’t show up as you scroll through Google Photos or any other apps on your device. Be aware, photos in your locked folder will only be stored on device. Lose the device, lose the photos. You also will lose the photos if you clear data. Full help article here.  Warning – “locked” files will exist on your device only, no cloud copy at all. If you clear cache and data – you will be deleting those on-device images.

5/20/21: Chapter 7: Accessing Snapseed from Android app is now done by tapping the Edit button, scroll to More… and choose Snapseed there.

5/19/21 Chapter 5: More control over what shows up in memories. Announced at Google I/O 5/18 – rolling out later this summer. See announcement on the Google Keyword Blog. The same announcement tells of a new “locked folder” which is a password protected place you can put photos that you don’t want to be accidentally viewed using Google Photos or any other app on your device.

5/2/21 Chapter 9: When sharing photos using iMessage, you now have direct access to Google Photos.

4/23/21: Chapter 7: Denoise and Sharpen on Android only – these are two new editing tools on the Adjustments tab. Denoise is meant to smooth a photo, giving it a slight blur. Sharpen give more definition. These new tools do not require a Google One membership. Article from AndroidPolice.

4/15/21: Chapter 4: I just noticed some new options when viewing video on the Web version. There is a settings button (gear icon) in the lower right that includes Playback Speed and Quality setting. 

4/15/21: Chapter 7 – New Video Editor, Android only. Now, in addition to trimming, stabilizing and export frame, we now have many of the same editing features as found in the Photo editor. Filters, Crop, Adjust, and Markup. So, if your video is dark, you can use a filter to brighten it up. Just realize that it will apply that filter to the entire video, so if another part of the video is bright, it will be washed out. I was really excited to see the Markup tool until I discovered that it is missing the Text option – it only has drawing tools.

3/15/21: Chapter 7 – Premium editing features only on Android right now. If you have a Pixel phone, you will see some new buttons when you’re editing a photo. If you have some other brand of Android phone, AND you are a Google One subscriber (you pay for storage) then you will also have those new buttons. On non-Pixel Androids, you will see them marked with the Google One logo. In the image below, the premium editing features are: Dynamic, Portrait, Color Pop, Blur, Color focus, Portrait light. The portrait-related options will only appear on photos with a face. Note: when you use a premium editing feature you can no longer save the photo, you must Save a Copy. See article by 9to5Google.

3/5/21: Chapter 4 – Web version menu added “Explore” and “Favorites.” People and places are now under Explore rather than Albums.

3/4/21: Chapter 3 – Apple now has a tool to transfer your iCloud photo library to Google. See this Apple support page for more details: Transfer a copy of your iCloud Photos collection to another service. Or this Android Police article: Apple lets you natively transfer your iCloud media to Google Photos

2/11/21: Chapter 7 – Android only: New video editor. See Google Blog post. I haven’t seen it yet, it will be “rolling out.” Also included is new Premium (for Google One subscribers only) photo editing features: Portrait lighting and sky suggestions. These I do have now.

2/9/21: Chapter 4 – Android only: you can now zoom in on videos by double-tapping. That will enlarge the video, then you can pinch, zoom, and drag.

1/25/21: Chapter 5 – Marking favorites can now be done for selected photos. Select multiple photos, click 3-dot menu, choose Favorite. Web and iOS – not Android yet. Also Favorites can now be synced between Apple Photos and Google Photos. This feature is rolling out account by account. I see it on one of my accounts, but not on another.

1/24/21: Chapter 4 – Layout of Google Photos menus now takes advantage of larger screen on Android tablets. See article on Android Police.

1/8/21: Chapter 10 (p. 136) – “Manage photo frames” is now available on iOS. No need to use Google Home app to specify what albums to display on Ambient mode.

12/15/20: Chapter 10 – Cinematic photos and more collages. Automatic creations appear in the Recent Highlights tile of Memories on mobile devices. A new creation is “Cinematic Photos” where Google identifies a person and animates them to look like they’re moving toward you while leaving the background. They also tell us to expect some fancier automatic collages. Here’s the official article.

11/20/20: Chapter 10 – The “For You” creations have been gradually disappearing. Rediscover this day which included a collage and album appear to have been deprecated. Rediscover this week, n years ago can only be seem in Memories (at the top of mobile app) For more information see https://support.google.com/photos/answer/9454489

Creations Pop, Stylized, Collages, Then & now, Animations only show up in Recent highlights and only if the date taken is within the last few weeks. Older photos will generate creations but they cannot be seen on the app, only at https://photos.google.com/unsaved or https://photos.google.com/search/_m10_Creations

11/11/20: Chapter 1 – Announcement – Unlimited Free storage will be going away as of June 1, 2021. This is very disappointing, but it is understandable as Google’s servers receive 28 Billion new photos and videos every week. Since images are personal content, they are not used for Google’s advertising. I, for one, would rather see them start charging as opposed to stop storing our photos. The good news is that all photos and videos uploaded at High Quality before June 1, 2021 and currently stored for free will be exempt from the new rules. Current pricing for 100GB is $2/mo. See the official announcement here: Updating Google Photos’ storage policy to build for the future. Read my article here: Google Photos free unlimited storage is ending – here’s everything you need to know

11/1/20: Chapter 1 – Recover Storage is no longer available as an option when you are a Google One Subscriber. Recover Storage is the process that will change file sizes to High Quality when they were uploaded in Original Quality. The option is found on the Web version under Settings. But, it’s not there if you are a Google One Subscriber. The option that appears instead is “Manage Subscription.” However – if you switch from Original Quality to High Quality, you will be prompted to recover storage from any existing Original Quality content.

11/1/20: Chapter 5 – The “Explore Map” that appears on screen after choosing Search is no longer a full-with button. It is the first tile amongst all the other places. The tile is labeled “Your Map.” I have not seen any announcements on this so maybe they’re just testing?

10/22/20: Chapter 10 – Introducing an iOS 14 home screen widget for your Google Photos. Official announcement

10/20/20: Chapter 10 – Google is re-launching their monthly subscription print service. Get 10 high quality prints mailed to you every month for $6.99. Here’s the official announcement.

10/15/20: Chapter 10 – The “For You” section is now gone from the Web interface, along with a few other tweaks to make the web more like the mobile menus. The creations will now be found under Utilities in both Web and mobile. Plus – on mobile – they initially show up in the Memories section in Recent Highlights.

10/8/20: Chapter 10 – In the moviemaker, we now have the choice to render the movies vertically (Portrait) or horizontal (Landscape)

9/30/20: Chapter 7 – Google announces a new photo editor. Rolling out on Android starting today. Here’s my article, including 3 videos: A new editor for Google Photos Android

9/29/20: Chapter 9 – I noticed an error on page 131. Shared Library is now called “Partner Sharing” and it’s found by clicking the account button at top right and choosing Photos Settings, then Partner sharing.

9/21/20: Chapter 6 Data Transfer Project news from the Google official blog. Using Takeout to transfer your photo library to Flickr or OneDrive, you can now specify albums to transfer rather than the entire library. I have not yet been successful with the transfer to OneDrive process. I’ll try this now and let you know.

9/18/20: Chapter 2 with update to iOS 14, the iPhone now asks for you to give access to “Selected photos” or “All photos.” If you mistakenly choose “selected photos” you must then go to System settings, Google Photos in order to choose “All Photos.”

9/3/20: Chapter 7 iPhone only – video editing with light and color adjustments, filters, and more. Using the video scrubber, you can preview any edits applied throughout the video. see article by The Verge

8/26/20: Canon DSLR cameras can now directly upload original quality photos over WiFi to Google Photos. A Google One subscription is required. Official Announcement

8/19/20: Android only: Third party apps can now access Google Photos albums to insert or attach a photo. Android Police article  In Gmail or Keep when I choose to insert a photo, I can select Google Photos and scroll down to see my albums. I don’t see this feature in truly 3d party apps like WhatsApp or Facebook or my Samsung texting app.

8/3/20: You can now see what photos on your phone are not backed up. Select the Account button in the upper right. If there are images that are not backed up, you will see a message like “99 items left to backup.” Tap on that message and you will see a grid with all those photos and videos. You will see a circular arrow on any images that are currently in process of backing up. You can also select individual photos and Back up.

7/28/20: Video editing can export one frame of the video to become a photo.

7/25/20: Album sorting comes to the Web version.

7/10/20: New menu structure for web version. The left-hand menu no longer collapses.

6/25/20: New icon, redesigned menu system, photo map. Removed 3-line menu – options now under account button and a new Library tab. Removed search bar at top – added a search tab. Removed For You tab – put creations in an enlarged memory bar with recent highlights. Official announcement. Chris’ article.

6/2/20: The account button in upper right now includes a link to “Manage your Google Account” which takes you to the same place as https://myaccount.google.com/ where you can see privacy settings, personal info, manage your data and more.

5/20/20: New private sharing of albums. When you share an album to a contact using their Google Account address, only they can see it. There is no public link created as there used to be. You can still share with a public link, but that is a completely different option. Also, you can now remove people from your shared album without the need to block them.  Announcement  Help Center Article

3/4/20: According to 9to5Google the photos app will be changing its menu interface. No more 3-line menu at the top left – those options will now be under “Library” on the bottom tabs. As of 6/14 I have not seen this change.

3/3/20: Source info now included in info for each photo – e.g. if a photo was shared to you from Sue Jones, the words “shared by Sue Jones” will now be on the info panel. Web version only. Article by Android Central

Prompt appears on photos with text asking if you want to copy the text. If tapped, it brings up Lens in text mode so you can do that.
From Android Police article

2/1/20: Account info and Backup status have moved to the Account bubble (Account Particle?) in the upper right of both Android and iOS apps. So, to see the “Backup Complete” message, you can no longer just scroll to the top of the screen. You need to tap on the account button.

12/18/19: Pixel phones now have an option for “Blur” on photos that are not taken with Portrait mode. This means you can create a portrait style photo after the fact. Official Announcement.

12/4/19: Additional print sizes: 5X7 and 8X10 in addition to the 4X6.

12/3/19: Direct Sharing a photo(s) directly to a contact starts a conversation rather than creating a shared album. Announced here. I haven’t seen it yet. Rolling out on iOS, Android and Web! Help Center article

12/2/19: Google Photos and other cloud photo services:
–Facebook will now transfer photos and videos to Google Photos – directly and securely without needing to download and re-upload. rolling out 2020
–Multcloud.com is a cloud<->cloud transfer service. Users have confirmed that it now works with Google Photos. So, you can transfer between Google Photos and OneDrive, Dropbox, Flickr, Google Drive.

12/1/19: Manual face tagging. Swipe up on photo and you should see a face section. The pencil will then let you edit. It will rescan photo and show you any missing photos.  Rolling out now on iOS and Android. see blog post.

11/26/19: Android only: Markup. After tapping on edit, you’ll now see a new tool. It looks like a squiggle and it allows you to draw on your photo, highlight something in your photo, or type text on the photo. See blog post.

11/23/19: Album sort: only Android so far. At top of album list, you’ll see a new button ↑↓ Most recent photo – tap that to see other choices: Last modified, Album title.

11/20/19: Ability to edit movies is now available on the web version of Google Photos. Open an existing movie, click the Edit button. Note: edit on Web does not include ability to add your own music, only theme music.

11/1/19: Menu item “Assistant” is gone, replaced by “For You.” For You refers to the creations that Google sends to you. Creations like stylized photos, collages, movies,  Remember this Day, and then and now pictures. For you also includes the menu for you to make your own creations:

Other items that used to be under Assistant, like suggestions for fixing sideways photos and archiving receipts are now in the “Manage your Library” menu item.

11/1/19: Edit in Snapseed moved: iOS = swipe up on photo, edit in Snapseed OR open photo and Share to snapseed. Android: Edit photo, tap 9-dot grid for Snapseed, crop document, any other photo editing apps on phone

11/1/19: 3-dot menu – no longer drops down a list style menu, instead it does the same as swipe up on photo and menu options are horizontal below photo. Make sure to swipe to see if the menu continues beyond the screen!

10/17/19: Android only: Crop document, automatically crop and adjust perspective on photos of documents – e.g. business cards, receipts, or full pages. Option found on edit screen under 9-dot grid.

10/15/19: Pixel 4 announced at “Made by Google Event” No more free original quality backup for Pixel. See support page here.
Pixel 1 = free Original uploads forever
Pixel 2 & 2XL = original uploads free until January 16, 2021.
Pixel 3 and 3XL original uploads free until Jan 31, 2022

10/5/19: Search – auto-suggestions no longer limited to 10. This means that you can search for a word and – before enter – you will see all possible albums with that word. 11/20 note: this is very inconsistent, sometimes I get more than ten, sometimes not. It seems to be the most solid on Android.

10/5/19: Motion/Live photos – pick the best frame. Android only, (but it works on live photos taken with iPhone) you can open a live/motion photo, tap the 3-dot menu (or swipe up on photo) and scroll down till you see a strip of image frames along the bottom where you can slide your finger to the best one and then tap Save a Copy in the upper right.

10/5/19: Android only – New feature on Google Photos menu is “Photo Frames” It allows you to select which albums to display on Chromecast or Google Home hub screens. What you used to need the Home app – ambient mode for, you can now do straight from Google. If you don’t know what we mean by displaying photos on Chromecast, see Episode 108 of our Button Show.

9/13/19: Relive past memories with new story-like feature in Google Photos. These are temporary stories compiled from your older photos. You can specify people or dates not to show. Rolling out to iOS and then Android.

9/12/19: Get prints made of any photos using Walmart or CVS. Announcement here. Available immediately in Assistant, Print Store

9/12/19: Google One members get original quality photo backup and the ability to restore to your phone.

9/1/19: No longer able to pinch screen to shrink view to year at a glance. Full month is as small as it goes.

9/1/19: Location info now shows just above each day’s photos.

8/25/19: Search by text in photo. Not official yet. 11/20 note: it is working consistently for me now on all three platforms: Web, Android, and iOS

7/30/19: iOS version – swipe up for options which used to be on 3-dot menu. For example, Add to Album, Archive, Save to device, Open in Snapseed, Save as PDF(?) 11/1 note: now on Android also (except save as PDF)

7/24/19: Gallery Go: a light photo app for use by people whose phones do not have reliable internet connection. Works on device only – no cloud access. Should not be considered by current Google Photos users.

7/10/19: Dark mode on Android. Turn on night mode in Display settings. Requires Android version 9 or higher

6/20/19: Added ability to search for “Recently Added” to see photos sorted by date uploaded rather than date taken.

6/12/19: Google Drive<->Google Photos automatic sync will stop working. See official post: Changing how Google Drive and Google Photos work together. And, my article:  Questions about Google Drive breaking up with Google Photos And, Michael Daniels YouTube show when I was a guest and discussed this news.

3/20/19: Android – Express backup now on menu. Will be able to backup over slow internet connection at reduced quality. (I still don’t see it?) Only shows up where applicable.

3/15/19: iOS-Google Photos library is now integrated with Siri Shortcuts. Go to your device settings to set Siri Shortcuts to work with Google Photos, so you can simply ask Siri to “view latest photo.”

3/8/19: Shared Libraries is now shown in the Sharing section on all platforms (iOS, Android, Web) rather than on the menu. (see p. 105 in book)

12/19/18: Photo albums can now hold up to 20,000 photos. See Android Police article

12/11/18: Unsupported videos: web version – settings, Unsupported videos listed and may take up space.

12/6/18: Express Backup – In addition to Original, and High Quality, there is now a size choice for Express Backup

11/20/18: Depth Editor and Color pop now available for iOS. See How to use Depth Editor and Color Pop in Google Photos

10/10/18: Read announcement here.

• Live Albums – A special kind of album where you specify certain people and any pictures of those people or pets will be added to the album automatically.
• Top Shot on Pixel 3: Take a motion picture with a Pixel 3 phone, and Google Photos will pick the best frame to be your still.
• Depth Editor: you can adjust the amount of blur/focus on portrait photos. Only available on Pixel 2, Pixel 3, and a few other Android phones that take portrait/depth photos.
• Color Pop: only available on portrait/depth type of photos. It leaves the main subject in color and the blurry background turns to black and white.

9/15/18: You can now add up to 10,000 photos or videos to a private album.