Google has announced a few notable updates to its Photos app, with some new features powered by its machine-learning technology.
The app can now automatically generate animated GIFs from videos you upload to the service. Google says its technology looks for video segments that capture activity – "a jump into the pool, or even just an adorable smile" – and creates short animations that can then be easily shared over email or social media.
In addition, Photos now uses facial recognition to surface older pictures of people that appear in your most recent uploads, and can also serve up what it considers to be picture 'highlights' from each month – similar to Apple's Memories feature in its native Photos app.
Last but not least, Google Photos now detects sideways photos in your uploads and offers to rotate them in one batch, saving you from having to correct their orientation yourself one by one.
Google Photos is a free download for iPhone and iPad from the App Store. [Direct Link]
Top Rated Comments
It's one of Google's Top 10 best products they've ever released.
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Search 800 photos in Apple's Photos app for "dog": 4 results, all dogs.
Search same 800 phones in Google Photo for "dog": 38 results, all dogs.
B
Though I have 2 feature suggestions that would make the app a lot better... The first is a duplicate finder. The second feature is "smart albums" that allows you to add filters, for example an album that automatically detects all photos taken at a certain place, or an album that detects all photos that includes Person X and person Y together.
Apple has a lot of things to learn from Google Photos...
I really want to Apple's photos to be better, but they're continuing to get their ass kicked left right and sideways.