Skip to main content

Google Photos will now suggest photos you might want to add to a shared album

google photo social app photos ios
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Facebook Moments may be available in Europe and Canada, but Google Photos isn’t going to take that sitting down, having launched a few new features of its own. In fact, it seems as though Google wants Photos to be a little more competitive with Moments, and has improved the social features of the app.

Perhaps the biggest change is that you can now finally add comments to individual photos and albums themselves that may have been shared with you, a feature that has sorely been missed in Photos up until now.

Of course, Photos is still missing a feature that other social platforms have — the ability to like a photo. So, album owners still won’t know if anyone really likes the photo of their pasta dish.

Another interesting new feature is “smart suggestions.” When an album is shared with you, Photos will now recommend photos that you might want to add to that album using data like photo dates and locations, assuming location services are enabled on your device. Obviously, you’ll only see these smart suggestions if Photos has some smart suggestions to make — if you don’t have any relevant photos, you won’t see any suggestions.

“No more searching for photos from last weekend’s birthday party and picking out the perfect ones — now you can add your best photos from the event in one tap,” said Google in a Google+ post.

In all honesty, the new features are great, but Google really is playing catch-up. iOS users have been able to share photos with friends since way back in 2012, and it took Google until December to do the same. Still, Google Photos has been a huge success, and it’s nice to see Google adding features that could be very useful to users.

The new features are available for the Google Photos iOS and Android apps, as well as on the web.

Editors' Recommendations

Christian de Looper
Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…
I used to love the Google Pixel Fold. Now, I’m not so sure
Google Pixel Fold in Obsidian in hand in coffee shop.

A few years ago, the dominant player in the foldable market was Samsung, at least in the U.S. However, 2023 seemed to be the year of folding phones, as Google entered the fray in July 2023 with its very first foldable, the Google Pixel Fold.

One of the problems I have with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold series is the narrow cover screen, which makes it awkward to type and use when closed. But the Google Pixel Fold was appealing to me because the cover display was essentially the same size as a standard phone's, so it felt easier to use. I also like that it opens up like a book. I gave the Pixel Fold an overall positive review as a  result of all those things.

Read more
I just spent $100 on Google Photos for a ridiculous reason
The Google Photos app running on a Google Pixel 8 Pro.

Hi, my name is Joe, and I have a cloud storage problem.

It all happened this past Saturday. It was a rainy and chilly fall afternoon, I was getting ready to meet up with some friends for drinks, and there I was — sitting at my Mac mini, signing up for a 2TB Google One plan so I could store all of my pictures in Google Photos.

Read more
Google is killing your passwords, and security experts are (mostly) happy
Logging into a Google account with passkeys on an iPhone.

Google is inching closer to making passwords obsolete. The solution is called "Passkeys," a unique form of password that is stored locally on your phone or PC, just the way a physical security key works. The passkeys are protected behind a layer of authentication, which can be your fingerprint or face scan — or just an on-screen pattern or PIN.

Passkeys are faster, linked across platforms, and save you the hassle of remembering passwords for websites or services that you have subscribed to. There is a smaller scope for human error, and the risks of 2-factor authentication code interception are also reduced.

Read more