Google Photos Receives Significant Updates at Google I/O

During the recent Google I/O developer event, which was streamed virtually, Google unveiled a range of enhancements for its Google Photos service. This platform, utilized by over a billion individuals, is set to gain features like Locked Folders, innovative “Memories” types, and a new capability called “Cinematic moments.”

Expanding Memory Features

Currently, Google Photos houses over 4 trillion photos and videos, yet a substantial portion remains unviewed. To address this, Google is actively developing AI-driven functionalities designed to help users reconnect with significant life events. The existing Memories feature, introduced in 2019, already resurfaces photos and videos centered around people, hobbies, and recent weekly highlights.

The company announced the addition of “little patterns” as a new type of Memory. Leveraging machine learning, this feature identifies sets of three or more photos sharing common characteristics – such as shape or color – and presents them as a cohesive pattern.

For instance, a Google engineer’s travels with a distinctive orange backpack were recognized by Google Photos, which highlighted the backpack’s presence in photos from various locations. Simple family photos taken repeatedly in the same setting, featuring recognizable furniture like a couch, can also form these patterns. Individually, these images may seem unremarkable, but collectively they create compelling compilations.

New Memory Types and Event Recognition

Google will also introduce Best of Month Memories and Trip highlights directly into the photo grid. Users will now have the ability to remove or rename these highlights, as well as Memories focused on celebrated events like birthdays and holidays. Event identification will be based on a combination of factors.

These factors include recognizing objects within the photos – such as birthday cakes or Hanukkah menorahs – and matching photo dates with known holiday schedules. Best of Month and Trip highlight Memories are beginning to roll out today. Event-based Memories will become available later this year.

Cinematic Moments: Bringing Photos to Life

A forthcoming feature, Cinematic Moments, shares similarities with the viral “deep nostalgia” technology from MyHeritage. However, instead of animating a single old photo, Google Photos will stitch together a series of photos to create a sense of motion and action.

Often, users capture multiple photos of the same moment to obtain a single, shareable image. This is particularly common when photographing subjects in motion, such as children or pets.

Building upon the Cinematic photos feature launched in December 2020, Cinematic Moments utilizes machine learning to generate vivid, 3D versions of photos. Computational photography and neural networks are employed to fill in the gaps between near-identical photos, creating new frames and resulting in dynamic images. A launch date for this feature has not yet been announced.

Enhanced Privacy and Control

Recognizing that not all past memories are desirable to revisit, Google is expanding its control options. Existing tools for hiding photos and time periods from Memories are being refined. A more accessible toolset will be available later this summer.

Particular attention has been given to feedback from the transgender community, who have expressed that revisiting past photos can be emotionally challenging. Users will soon be able to remove individual photos from Memories, remove Best of Month Memories, and rename or remove event-based Memories.

Introducing Locked Folder for Privacy

A new Locked Folder feature provides a passcode-protected space for private photos. Many users automatically synchronize their phone’s photos to Google’s cloud, but may wish to share photos selectively. This feature addresses the challenge of displaying photos on phones or connected TVs without revealing private content.

This feature will initially launch on Pixel devices, allowing users to save photos and videos directly from their camera to the Locked folder. The update will be extended to other Android devices later in the year.