You can check the new feature out for yourself by disconnecting from the internet, opening up the Google Photos app, and hitting the “Create new animation” button at the top of the screen. Choose a few photos, and press the create button, after which the animation will be created — all without a connection. Once you do reconnect to the internet, the app will sync your changes with your Google Photos account. The animation that’s created is stored in the form of a GIF.
The feature is notable because of the fact that Google Photos doesn’t store photos offline by default — instead, photos are stored in the cloud, while photo previews, which take up far less space, are downloaded when you access the app. Because of that, when you try and create a gallery while offline, you may receive an error message saying that you need to connect to the internet.
There are some other features in Google Photos that work offline. For example, when you take a photo or video while offline, the photo or video will be stored locally until you connect to the internet, when it will be uploaded to the cloud and deleted from your device, saving precious storage that can be used for other things. It’s a very helpful feature — especially for those who don’t have much storage on their device for things like apps.
Google Photos has largely been considered one of the best photo apps since it was released in May 2015. New features like this will help the app stay on top.
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