Have you stopped to count the number of photos you take every day with your smartphone? There are many! But, there is a problem: how to organize all the images? On the Internet there are many tools that help you do it, however one stands out among all of them, we are talking about Google Photos, but what is Google Photos really? Is it just a place to store and organize photos?
The search giant’s solution features several interesting and useful features, such as automatic backup, remote access to files, and smart search. And the best thing is that the application is light, easy to use and free.
Even so, many people do not know all its functions or do not know how to use this service. For this reason, we have prepared this practical tutorial, with everything you need to know to start discovering what Google Photos is.
Shall we start?
What is Google Photos and what is it for?
Google Photos is a service developed by Google to share and store photos. Launched in May 2015, it is one of the most popular tools in its category and is already installed on Android smartphones.
The service stores your photos and videos “in the cloud”. But what does that mean?
In the old days, to back up photos and videos, you needed to connect your smartphone or camera to your computer and transfer all the files manually. And then you had to transfer it all back to an external HD or DVD. It was tedious work and it took a long time, remember?
Although it is excellent to have several backups of your files, mainly the most important ones, storing photos and videos in the cloud is very advantageous. In addition to being easy to use, this type of technology allows access to files from any device connected to the Internet.
There are several such tools on the Internet, but Google Photos is one of the most popular for several reasons, such as:
- Automatic storage and backup of photos and videos;
- It allows to organize, share and manage photos and videos with a touch;
- It is compatible with various types of devices;
- It is easy to use, with an intuitive interface.
Changes in the backup and storage of Google Photos
In November 2020, Google announced that more photo and video files will start to be counted in the storage space of users’ Google Drive accounts.
The main change affects precisely Google Photos, which will no longer offer unlimited backup of photos and videos in high definition.
As of June 1, 2021, the space occupied by these files will be counted in the total storage space, as is already the case with original quality content.
The company states that this new rule will not affect those who back up high-definition media files until the end of 2021. Photos and videos sent until this date will continue to be available in Google Photos without counting against the limit available for storage.
However, files sent after June 1, 2021 will start consuming Google account space, which is 15GB on the free plan.
To help users, Google offers a page with a projection of how long you will have free storage space on the free plan.
Available the tool takes into account your Google Photos backup history, as well as Google Docs files and messages in Gmail.
How does Google Photos work?
Google Photos is not just for storing images and videos. This tool has a series of resources that make your day-to-day life easier. Here you can see the main ones:
1.Auto Backup
One of the great advantages is that it makes a copy of all the images and videos on the device automatically. Thus, as long as you have a stable Internet connection, the tool will make a backup of your files in the cloud.
2. Smart search
Google Photos incorporates the powerful search technology of Google. Thus, you can search your photos using any . When searching for “food,” for example, the service will display images of food. By typing “Machu Picchu”, the app will show photos and videos geographically located in that place.
3. Assistant
Another quite useful function is the Assistant, which analyzes your image library in search of similar photos to each other. Then compile the files into albums and collages.
In addition, this feature also helps you exclude duplicate files and free up storage space on your device.
4.Google Lens
Continuing Google’s investments in Artificial Intelligence, Google Photos introduces integration with Lens. This function allows the user to photograph an image and receive information about an object highlighted in it, such as the name of a color pattern, a tourist spot or the species of a plant.
5. Google Photos Albums
Through advanced image processing and analysis techniques, Google’s service automatically groups photos and videos into personalized albums.
People, places, objects, collages, animations, and movies are some of the types of automatic albums that Google Photos creates.
6. Digitization of old images
Anyone who grew up before the advent of digital photography must have a large collection of analog photos at home. If this is your case, you can digitize those memories and store them online.
Google Photos has a feature that scans old photos, removes glare and distortion, preserving their colors and appearance.
7. Friend Account
Another great advantage is the ability to share multimedia files with specific people, such as photos and videos of a party with all the guests.
To use this feature, simply access the settings, select the “Share” option, and then “Select friend”, enter the email address or name and choose what will be shared.
How to use Google Photos?
With all these amazing features, you must be excited to start using Google Photos to organize your images. But do you know how to do it?
Find out here how to set up and use Google Photos with simple steps:
1. Install Google Photos
The first step is to install the Photos app on your smartphone. The tool is available for either .
In addition, Google makes available a web version of this tool, where you can upload photos and videos stored on your computer.
2. Choose the quality level of the backup
After installing the app, you will need to choose the quality level of the photos and videos stored in the service.
Google Photos gives you two options:
- High quality: photos are resized to a maximum of 16 megapixels and videos to 1080p.
- Original: no quality or resolution is lost in the original files.
3. Browse the images
By default, when you open Google Photos you have access to a gallery with all the images and videos organized by date, with the most recent files first.
On tablets and smartphones, you can pinch the screen to view photos by month, day, and individual images. To return to the standard view, you just have to do the opposite movement.
The “Albums” section automatically organizes all your images and videos into the following categories: People, Places, Objects, Videos, Collages, Animations and Movies.
4. Edit the images
Google Photos also offers some image and video editing tools.
By pressing the edit icon, you can apply preset filters to photos, alter lighting, color and brightness, as well as crop and rotate the image.
Basic settings include tools to alter lighting (brightness), color, and contrast. Tapping the arrow next to one of these options brings up more detailed settings and editing options.
The in Google Photos it is limited to content cropping, video rotation and image stabilization.
5. Use the wizard to access automatic projects
By clicking the Assistant button at the bottom of the app, or on the left in the web version, you have access to a series of extra tools: Album, Movie (available only on smartphones), Collage and .
You can create those items manually, selecting the photos and videos you want to combine. But, the Assistant also creates automatic albums, movies, collages and animations.
All these contents appear as cards and you have the option to exclude or save each of them.
6. Create albums, collages and movies with Google Photos
In addition to the Wizard’s suggestions, you can also create your own custom content.
Albums, collages and movies are created the same way: just select the photos and videos you want to include. You can also add, delete and regroup the images.
The process for creating videos is similar, but that feature is only available on mobile apps since it relies on touch controls. You can select up to 50 images to create a movie, arranging the photos in the desired order and including personalized music.
7. Share
Although all content stored in Google Photos is private, you can share a specific photo or video by selecting the share icon at the bottom left of the screen.
This option allows you to share your files with various applications, such as Facebook, Twitter and Gmail. You can also click the “Create a link” button to create a URL associated with the file, which can be accessed from any device.
Google Photos is a great tool for storing and syncing photos and videos. It has automatic functions that make life much easier for those who have thousands of multimedia files.
If you are looking for an online file storage service, take the opportunity to learn .
This post was originally published in August 2019 and updated with more complete and accurate information.
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