Google Makes Improvements to Photos – Should Apple be Worried?

Move over iOS Photos, there’s a new kid in town. Well, maybe not new, but certainly much improved.  Google announced yesterday that they have over half a billion users uploading photos every day.  Every single day.  Which means it’s time for an improved version of the app.  Part of that update is Google Lens, which I talked about in yesterday’s post.  But that’s not going to be ready for a little while.  So sit tight, but in the mean time, here are some cool new enhancements to Google Photos.

• Suggested Sharing

If your photo is if your good friend Thomas, Google Photos will suggest that you share the photo with him.  And even anyone else that might know him or want to see the photo.  This is really neat as it’s using machine learning to identify Thomas, and then determine what to do with that photo.  Google has been making strides in the AI arena in order to identify objects – such as mountains.  But this is taking it to the next level.

• Shared Libraries

Now you can share an entire library with a group of people.  I might suggest this to my sister in law for photos of my nephew.  She often sends a ton via email, which is nice to get, but this would be easier.  I would like to point out that this can be done through iCloud sharing now.  The one difference is, with Google Shared Libraries, the photo stays in your camera roll as well. Through iOS, you have to add it to the Library, and you can leave it in your camera roll, but they aren’t necessarily linked.

• Photo Books

There are many people out there who no longer use photo albums.  And I honestly can’t blame them.  They take up space, and they take a lot of time to put them together.  But on the other hand, what better way to capture the best moments of your vacation than with an album?  Well, Google is now letting you create a photo book directly from the app.  Simply select the photos you want, and Google will take care of the rest for a very reasonable price.  I think this makes a great gift idea or a coffee table item.  Rather than showing people pictures on your phone, bring out one of these books and share your memories.

I love this app.  Although, I haven’t used it in quite some time because I found it kind of cumbersome.  So when I switched to an iPhone, I started using the Photos app.  And while it does what I need it to do, I can see so many benefits of switching back to Google Photos.  Mainly, just how organized it makes everything.  I like everything to have its place, so to speak, including my photos.  So I want to be able to navigate to the “Oliver” photo and find pictures of my nephew.  I don’t want to have to search through my photo stream.

And what I want to achieve can be done through iOS to a certain extent.  The question I have is whether or not Apple will beef up their Photos app based on these changes?  With a predicted launch of the next iteration of the iPhone coming in the fall, will they have time?  Or does it even matter since this will be available for iOS?  Which also makes it nice as you can share the photos between Android and iOS users.  In my opinion this is a win, and I might end up switching back sooner than later.