Google Photos App Updated With Burst Photo Support and New Cropping Tool

[MacRumors]

Google has updated its mobile photo and video cloud storage app Google Photos with a couple of new features, including burst photo support and a new cropping tool.

The 1.12.1 update means users can now make full use of the iPhone's burst mode capability by holding down on the app's on-screen shutter release button, as well as crop newly shot photos on the fly.

In addition, the company says Google Photos now loads faster, and users can expect reduced battery and cellular data usage when using the updated version on the go.

Google Photos was originally released last year to complement the company's web-based photo service. According to Google statistics, 200 million users have stored 13.7 petabytes of photos on the cloud platform, which offers unlimited storage.

The service supports videos in 1080p resolution and photos up to 16 megapixels, but recompresses images to increase upload speed. Meanwhile, users subscribed to a paid Google storage tier can upload 4K video and higher resolution photos.

Other app features include a visual search tool that can distinguish people, places and things without the use of tags, a movie, collage and animation creator, photo and video editing tools like filters and lighting adjustments, smart albums, Live Photos and Chromecast support.

Google Photos is a free download for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Google Photos App Updated With Burst Photo Support and New Cropping Tool

 

[12vElectronics]

I've never used Google Photos. What benefit over the stock photos app does it offer?

 

[LovingTeddy]

I've never used Google Photos. What benefit over the stock photos app does it offer?

Cross devices support , like support iOS and Android. Unlimited photo backup. You don't have to pay for the stupid iCloud storage.

iOS 10 photo app is basically clone of Google photo app minus unlimited photo back up...

 

[CarpalMac]

Cross devices support , like support iOS and Android. Unlimited photo backup. You don't have to pay for the stupid iCloud storage.

iOS 10 photo app is basically clone of Google photo app minus unlimited photo back up...

Auto awesome is also a lot of fun (automatically makes videos/gifs/panoramas etc.. out of similar photos). It has been merged into their Assistant feature now.

 

[vooke]

Hail Google for their near infinite cloud space

 

[thekeyring]

I've never used Google Photos. What benefit over the stock photos app does it offer?

Unlimited cloud storage.

 

[iMerik]

Cross devices support , like support iOS and Android. Unlimited photo backup. You don't have to pay for the stupid iCloud storage.

iOS 10 photo app is basically clone of Google photo app minus unlimited photo back up...

They have two backup options. One is to back up original files, which counts against your Google Account storage limit, and the second option is High Quality (Free Unlimited), which uses slight compression. I haven't read up on just how lossy it is or isn't.

 

[darknyt]

For me at least, Google Photos is delivering on the promises ICPL made but has failed miserably at. Having access to my full photo library on the go was such an exciting possibility and with Google Photos I have that. I can be sitting with some friends and they mention a place I was 2 or 3 years ago. Within 10 seconds I can pull up all my pictures and videos from that place.

ICPL is flat-out unusable on anything but my iMac for my large library. Tried it on an iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6s and it was a joke. Gave it weeks to get its act together on both devices and this was after my full library upload was done, so best possible chance. Crashed constantly, and if it would even stay open it was horribly slow to do anything. Never made all my library available and never uploaded videos from devices like it promised. Forget trying to search for anything.

Tried working with apple on it and they came back and said they could submit a ticket to their engineers but that ICPL was basically still a beta and they couldn't promise anything.

But of course happily take my $10/mo, even $20 back then.

It's embarrassing how well Google photos handles 200k media when ICPL can't even function. The ICPL team needs a serious shakeup.

 

[Signup]

They have two backup options. One is to back up original files, which counts against your Google Account storage limit, and the second option is High Quality (Free Unlimited), which uses slight compression. I haven't read up on just how lossy it is or isn't.

Nothing is free. No thanks. Have at it.

 

[BigMcGuire]

They have two backup options. One is to back up original files, which counts against your Google Account storage limit, and the second option is High Quality (Free Unlimited), which uses slight compression. I haven't read up on just how lossy it is or isn't.

Someone here at Macrumors showed me this article - it is really helpful. http://petapixel.com/2015/05/30/jpeg-compression-test-google-photos-vs-jpegmini/

I choose Free Unlimited and have some 80,000 photos/videos now on Google Photos. I have Google Drive backing them up to my Mac Mini's spinning hard drive and Spannings doing a daily Amazon Cloud backup of my data.

I gladly pay Google for 100GB ($1.99/mo) and have 1TB free for Chromebook promotional storage, 1TB for Local Guides promotional storage, and various other free storage (96GB early adopter). Spannings says all my data, including photos/videos is about 150GB. Google shows I'm using 27GB out of 2.29TB.

Love how I can have access to all my photos without having to sync EVERY SINGLE PHOTO/VIDEO to every device I have. Even though I have a 128GB iPhone, I constantly clear local space with the Google Photos app for fun. Yes, I know...

 

[Aston441]

Google Photos exposes the sad that is iCloud.

I really can't see how much longer Apple can keep the BS going.

Something's gotta give eventually.

A Google branded phone supposedly coming out soon might be what finally starts the Great Exodus away from Apple.

 

[iMerik]

Google Photos exposes the sad that is iCloud.

I really can't see how much longer Apple can keep the BS going.

Something's gotta give eventually.

A Google branded phone supposedly coming out soon might be what finally starts the Great Exodus away from Apple.

I'm right there with you. Google services are simply better in almost every way but privacy... and my only email account set up on my iPhone is Gmail, so I'm already in the thick of it. In some cases where iMessage and FaceTime shine, we are still limited to iDevices for full functionality, and most of my friends are on Android these days. It's getting harder to fight off the temptation to switch. I think what's keeping me on iOS for now is the predictability of having iDevices in the house instead of a hodgepodge of Android devices.

We sold off all of our Macs when we could get a good price in anticipation of buying a Macbook and have been using a cheap Chromebook for quite a while now. Apple hasn't released a Macbook that has felt worth buying since then, and I'm starting to think we are getting along just fine without one, which is a troubling thought.

 

[AllergyDoc]

I don't see how this is any better than Flickr. 1 TB of lossless storage (though not in every file format), an app for the iPad and iPhone that gives you access to all your photos, auto upload on the apps (have to pay to get auto upload on your PC), and free.

 

[btimesthree]

Google has updated its mobile photo and video cloud storage app Google Photos with a couple of new features, including burst photo support and a new cropping tool.

The 1.12.1 update means users can now make full use of the iPhone's burst mode capability by holding down on the app's on-screen shutter release button, as well as crop newly shot photos on the fly.

In addition, the company says Google Photos now loads faster, and users can expect reduced battery and cellular data usage when using the updated version on the go.

Google Photos was originally released last year to complement the company's web-based photo service. According to Google statistics, 200 million users have stored 13.7 petabytes of photos on the cloud platform, which offers unlimited storage.

The service supports videos in 1080p resolution and photos up to 16 megapixels, but recompresses images to increase upload speed. Meanwhile, users subscribed to a paid Google storage tier can upload 4K video and higher resolution photos.

Other app features include a visual search tool that can distinguish people, places and things without the use of tags, a movie, collage and animation creator, photo and video editing tools like filters and lighting adjustments, smart albums, Live Photos and Chromecast support.

Google Photos is a free download for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Google Photos App Updated With Burst Photo Support and New Cropping Tool

[doublepost=1468538830][/doublepost]Google Photos - just wow! Everything I wished iCloud photo library was .... and more!!!

The only thing I wish would improve is the situation with duplicates. It says it doesn't upload them ..... but it does. And, there doesn't seem to be a way of getting rid of them once they are up there (aside from manually). Please fix!!!

 

[Marrakas]

Still missing the option to backup only when charging, and choosing which albums that will be backed up like on android.

 

[DaPizzaMan]

Will this go ahead and fix burst photos uploaded prior to the update? That would be really nice.

 

[darknyt]

I don't see how this is any better than Flickr. 1 TB of lossless storage (though not in every file format), an app for the iPad and iPhone that gives you access to all your photos, auto upload on the apps (have to pay to get auto upload on your PC), and free.

Videos for one thing?

I liked Flickr and had it in my rotation of cloud storage, but their crappy move to put the desktop uploader behind the paywall makes their pretension at offering a free TB a joke now.

Hey, here is TB for 'free' but let's take away any real method to upload to it.

I almost deleted my account when they pulled that one.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Videos for one thing?

I liked Flickr and had it in my rotation of cloud storage, but their crappy move to put the desktop uploader behind the paywall makes their pretension at offering a free TB a joke now. Hey, here is TB for 'free' but let's take away any real method to upload to it. I almost deleted my account when they pulled that one.

Was going to say... I was a heavy user of Flickr back in the day before it was monetized by Yahoo (had a Pro unlimited account). Their uploader was terrible, slow, and half of the time didn't work (talking mobile and PC). So I left for Google Photos. So many more features/abilities in Google Photos I couldn't go back.

 

[darknyt]

Was going to say... I was a heavy user of Flickr back in the day before it was monetized by Yahoo (had a Pro unlimited account). Their uploader was terrible, slow, and half of the time didn't work (talking mobile and PC). So I left for Google Photos. So many more features/abilities in Google Photos I couldn't go back.

Yeah, Flickr is prob the worst out of all the cloud storage I use as fail safes. Between Amazon, Google photos, one drive, and Flickr, it does the worst at getting my pictures uploaded via mobile without a ton of handholding.