New Google Photos 'Live Albums' Share Pictures of People and Pets Automatically

Following yesterday's Google event, the company is rolling out an update for Google Photos that introduces a new feature called Live Albums.

Powered by Google's facial recognition algorithms, Live Albums allow users to create albums that are automatically updated with pictures from their library of a specific person or pet.

Once an album has been tagged as a Live Album, it can be shared with others and will still automatically update to include new shots when they become available. From Google's The Keyword blog:

You can turn any album into a live album. Just choose the people (and pets) you want to see, and Google Photos will automatically add photos of them to your album as you take them. Then, you can share your album with family and friends so they can be a part of special moments as they happen—no manual updates needed.

Live Albums in Google Photos are created in the same way as a normal album, by selecting the Album tab and tapping the New album icon – just be sure to tap the new setting "Automatically add photos of people and pets" on the next screen, and you'll then be able to select the ones you want to include. You can also opt to be notified when any new photos are added to the album.

In addition, Google says that the 7-inch display on its just-announced Google Home Hub smart speaker will also display these Live Albums including recently added photos.

Live albums are rolling out now in a number of countries on Android, iOS and the web. Google Photos is a free download for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tags: Google, Google Photos

Top Rated Comments

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foobarbaz

1 week ago

What could possibly go wrong ...

Rating: 14 Votes

212rikanmofo

1 week ago

Can't trust Google anymore with anything.

Rating: 4 Votes

Toutou

6 days ago at 07:52 am

Is every apple design copied? Photos logo rip off

Photos - 2014
Picasa - 2004

Try again.

Rating: 3 Votes

Razeus

6 days ago at 07:35 am

Here come the Google haters.

It's obvious you guys didn't even read the article.

Google isn't just sending out pictures automatically willy-nilly.

You make an album, add the people you want to that album using faces, an INVITE who you want to see them.

Rating: 3 Votes

jacg

1 week ago

I guess they are already harvesting the crap out your photos, so why not automatically share them? There’s still no such thing as bad publicity, right?

Rating: 3 Votes

AustinIllini

1 week ago

Really wish that we could get just standalone Gallery and Music apps and not have to deal with these bloated messes that are being pushed on us.

Are you crazy? Google Photos is amazing! It far outdoes photos in the Apple ecosystem and is a lot better than the gallery app ever was.

Rating: 3 Votes

Kajover

1 week ago

Interesting feature, unfortunately it is from Google

Rating: 2 Votes

one more

6 days ago at 08:24 am

I think we all know what will happen when a special type of selfie is photobombed by a pet and google decides to automatically share it.

Have you read the article?

“You can turn any album into a live album. Just choose the people (and pets) you want to see, and Google Photos will automatically add photos of them to your album as you take them. Then, you can share your album with family and friends so they can be a part of special moments as they happen—no manual updates needed.”

It is a user who creates the album based on the photos of the same person or per and then can decide to share it, as they could do with any album up till now. All Google does is automatically populates this album. That is all. Where is the problem in this, exactly?
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Google photos is great. But there is one thing. If I delete a certain photo in the google photos it will delete it in the photos app of the phone and vice versa. Is there any way I can back up everything in Google's photo and keep it there, regardless if I delete it from the photos app?

If you delete a photo from Google Photos it will indeed delete it from (Apple) Photos. However, if you open Google Photos, back all your photos up to Google first and then delete them from Photos, your photos with remain intact with Google (won’t be deleted after you delete them from Photos).

Rating: 2 Votes

rmoliv

1 week ago

The whole event was so cringeworthy. They don’t even hide their attempt to copy Apple’s keynotes, even the ads. It was sad to watch, I almost felt sorry for them.

Rating: 2 Votes

Defthand

6 days ago at 07:15 am

Is every apple design copied? Photos logo rip off

I believe Google’s Picasa web storage photo service existed well before iOS 7, when Apple changed its Photos app icon from a skuemorphic flower icon to the a colors pinwheel. It’s more likely that Apple copied Picasa’s logo (above).