10 Google Photos Tips That Will Make You A Google Master

Published: 6 September 2016Updated: 20 October 2022
picasa-google-photos

Picasa has been dead for a long time now. Say hello to a new and improved Google Photos

Google has come a long way from its Picasa days. Now, most of you use Google Photos to edit,manage and save your photos and videos without leaving the 5 inch (sometimes smaller) screen of your smartphone.

And since Google Photos isn’t just your regular photo sharing or uploading application, there is a good chance that you might have spent a few minutes of your precious time playing around with its numerous tools.

But have you really explored Google Photos to its full extent? Have you taken advantage of its various features that allow you to manage thousands of photos without clicking (or tapping) for hours on end?

Good news: we’ve compiled a list of ten best features from Google’s overhauled and improved image (and video) management platform.

These tips will bring you the best of Google Photos without any extra cost or effort. You might know some of these features already, but you can rest assured that most of the ten features we’ll list here won’t pop up in your standard Google search.

1-Welcome to The World of Streamlined Share And UnShare Features

No feature represents Google Photos as a complete photo management application as the feature of sharing and unsharing your content.

This is, without a doubt, one of the most useful features in Google Photos.

Of course, every photo sharing application has this feature but Google Photos sets itself apart by making it uncommonly easy for the user to share an image or a group of images.

You can literally share your images with a single link.

The best part is that anyone who has the link can see the images you want them to see.

The downside is that you will need to spend a bit more time in ensuring that you review your photostream regularly and remove the images that you no longer need.

Make use of Shared Links feature from the web menu to organize and manage your photos and your shared photos.

2-Put A Bit Of Thought In Application’s Search Capability

Google Photos gets an unfair advantage over all other photo management applications in that it has the greatest algorithm working for it overtime behind the curtains.

Google Photos has a smart search function that is more productive than you might think.

For example, if you click inside the search box in your Google Photos application while on the web, Google Photos will give you relevant suggestions.

But that’s not all. You can search for anything you want. You can search for things such as train, panda, trees, cats or even the dreaded “selfie.

Moreover, you can also search your entire image collection using terms such as “panorama” to sort out your collection by photo type rather than content type.

It all depends on you. If you know how to input intelligent queries, Google Photos will oblige you with intelligent answers.

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Google Photos has a host of new features that you can use to organize your photos.

3-Upload Your Content Such As Videos To YouTube

There is more to this photo management application than just its name. I mean, literally, Google Photos is more than a photo management system because it can also handle your videos.

In fact, you can store as many videos as you want provided that you stick to a maximum quality of 1080p, which is more than enough for most people.

Additionally, you can also import videos from your Google Photos directly into your YouTube channel (assuming you have one).

You can go here to find out exactly how to do that.

The YouTube page will provide you with an option to upload clips and edit your video title along with video tags.

You will also be able to share your videos.

4-Backup Your Photos From Other Applications

As mentioned before, Google Photos has streamlined the process of sharing, uploading and saving photos more than any other photo management application.

It does a fantastic job of uploading photos that you take from your smartphone or tablet to the cloud.

So whenever you take a photo, you don’t have to worry about it getting lost or accidently deleted ever again.

Not only that but you can also perform the same action for other apps like Instagram and WhatsApp on your Android smartphone or tablet.

If you have an Android smartphone or tablet then all you need to do is go to your Google Photos Android application and then open the main app menu.

Then select Device Folders from the options and select the folder or folders you want to include or leave out from the Google Photos backup process.

Be careful though, you might end up uploading photos to the cloud that were meant to be of a private nature.

5-Did You Know That You Could Press And Hold To Select Your Content like Photos And Videos

Again, this feature also shows how much work the developer team behind google Photos has done to make sure that the photo management experience for the end user is as smooth as possible.

Most users have a ton of digital images on their devices (smartphone or tablet) lying around in total disarray.

Google Photos enables users to manage all those disorganized photos in a matter of a few clicks (or a few taps).

There are a few tricks to achieve this but the most effective one is that you simply open up your mobile application and then just press,hold, and swipe across the screen to an area of your liking to select as many photos as you want.

Of course, this process is way easier when done with a mouse and a keyboard instead of a touchscreen.

If you’re using a mouse and a keyboard then all you need to do is select a particular photo with your mouse and drag along however many photos you want to select.  

6-Build Stories From Your Images

Google Photos allows users to build stories which are essentially a tour of your photos in particular albums that are all filled out with relevant captions.

The Stories feature also gives your photos a specific flow which acts as a guide to your particular story.

All you need to do is to go to your Google Photos mobile application and then create these stories.

To create a story all you need to do is tap the Create icon, which is basically a plus symbol, and then choose the option Story.

Then you need to select the relevant pictures and add captions to them along with their locations.

You can also change the cover photo of your story.

UPDATE: Google has now retired its Story feature and has replaced with an improved version of Stories. Now your Google Photos assistant will automatically make stories from the relevant photos.

You will have the same old stories but without all that hard work. Google is calling the new feature Google Albums. Your Google Photos Assistant will automatically create one by analyzing your photos from their date taken, location, and content attributes.

7-Customize Further By Stripping Out Geo-Location Information

Google Photos makes photo management dead easy. The application uses location data that is stored with your photos and then clumps relevant photos together based on where the photos were actually taken.

Of course, sometimes, you don’t want to share the location information while you share your photos with your friends and family.

If you want to remove the location data from your photos then simply go into Google Photos settings menu when on the web.

Then enable Remove geolocation in items shared by link.

That’s it. That’s all you need to do.

Google-photos-tips

After giving the world the best search engine, Google is now pretty close to doing the same with photo management applications.

8-You Can Also Import Images From Your Desktop Computer And Camera

Most of Google Photos users use their smartphone devices, whether Android or iOS, to take and save their photos and hence Google has put in the most work in its mobile applications for Android and iOS.

However, Google Photos also allows you to upload photos from your desktop computer and external memory cards too.

You will need to download Google Photos on your Windows or Mac, and then simply select the folder you want Google Photos to back up to the cloud.

After that, you don’t need to worry about anything else.

9-Access Google Drive To View Your Photos And Videos

If you want to view photos and videos in Google Drive then simply open up the Google Photos application on the web and then choose to view your content in Google Drive through the new Photos feature.

Don’t forget that this feature doesn’t copy or move your content from Google Photos to Google Drive.

So if, in the future, you disable the feature then all your photos and videos will disappear from Google Drive’s Photos feature.

Overall, it doesn’t hurt to be able to view your photos and videos from more places than one.

10- Download Images To Your Desktop Computer

While on the web, go to Google Drive’s settings menu and create a folder that shows your Google Photos.

Then simply install this Google Drive desktop client for your operating system.

Now every piece of photo and video that you’ll upload from your mobile smartphone to Google Photos will also get saved to the Google Drive folder on your desktop computer.

There are many other photo editors out there if you don’t like Google Photos, but we think you will be pretty satisfied.

Of course, you’ll need to be extra careful with duplicates since if you have the desktop uploader installed then the process of uploading to the cloud may run twice.

Zohair

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