Take a stroll down memory lane with this new Google Photos feature

By Robert Nazarian August 20, 2015

Google Photos Hands On — Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends

If you’re like me, you take a lot of photos. Unfortunately, as years go by, we tend to forget about some of the great photos captured over the years. It could be a fantastic vacation, an amazing party, or something as simple as a couple of friends getting together for dinner. I sometimes stumble upon photos from years ago and say to myself, “That was so much fun.”

If any of this sounds familiar, then you’re going to love a new feature that’s rolling out now to Google Photos users. The Assistant view will now show you cards reminding you of photos from events in your past. You might even get a collage of the people and places from the day.

This unnamed feature is totally opt-in and it will work with not only the Photos app on Android and iOS, but through a desktop browser as well. All cards are private for only your viewing pleasure, but of course, you can share these nostalgic photos via email or your favorite social network if you wish.

Google_Photos_Rediscover_Past_Photos_01 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you’re not familiar with Google Photos, it’s a cloud storage option for all your pictures and videos. It offers unlimited storage of both photos and videos, which is unprecedented. A cool auto tagging feature allows you to find all your photos with a particular person in them. You can even search your photos with just about any keyword. For example, searching for “snow” will reveal all your photos that have snow in them.

If that’s not enough, the app offers you the ability to create Stories, which are similar to slideshows, and mini movies of all the pictures and videos from any event. You can even create collages.

We encourage you to give Google Photos a shot if you haven’t already. You can access it from your desktop browser, or you can get the Android or iOS app.

This new “memory lane” feature is rolling out now so you might not see it just yet. It will not be on by default, so make sure to opt-in so you can start reminiscing about some of those great memories.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Robert Nazarian

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Robert Nazarian became a technology enthusiast when his parents bought him a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color. Now his biggest…

Mobile

These are the best Android 15 features you need to know about

Android 15 has entered its latter leg of testing among developers, and in the coming months, a beta build will finally be released for the masses. So far, across the two Developer Preview builds that Google has released, we’ve encountered a handful of new features that will make life easier for smartphone users in meaningful ways.

Among them is a notification cooldown system that shields you from a barrage of audio alerts from your apps. Google has already detailed the changelog to a healthy extent, but not all new tricks have been implemented yet. But there’s still enough to unpack in Android 15, and some of those notable additions are detailed below:
Partial screen sharing

Mobile

Your Google Pixel 8 is getting this cool missing feature after all

The Google Pixel 8 on a table.

A feature you thought wasn’t coming to your Google Pixel 8 is coming to your Pixel 8, after all. It’s Gemini Nano, the on-device AI that recently launched on the Pixel 8 Pro, but Google claimed it wouldn’t work on the cheaper Pixel 8. Backtracking on previous statements is rarely a good thing, but this time, it has a happy ending.

Gemini Nano — the name given to the most efficient version of Google’s Gemini AI, joining Gemini Pro and Ultra — arrived on the Pixel 8 Pro in an update in December 2023. It was good news, but Pixel 8 owners were oddly left out. In an episode of the Android Developers podcast in March 2024, it was then claimed Gemini Nano wouldn’t operate on the non-Pro Pixel 8 at all due to unspecified hardware limitations, which was a blow to owners of the cheaper phone as it even uses the same processor as the Pro model.

Mobile

Google Pixel 9: news, rumored price, release date, and more

The Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro are Google's latest and most powerful devices, but it won't be that way for long. Rumors of the Google Pixel 8a mean this pair of flagships will be supplanted as the latest Google phones fairly soon — but they'll be able to hold on to the title of "most powerful" for a little while longer. The Google Pixel 9 range, while definitely on the way, isn't due to arrive any time soon.

But when it does, it's sure to be a pair of blockbusters. Leaks for the Pixel 9 family are a little thin on the ground at the moment, but it seems as if Google is planning on making some big changes this time around. If leaks are correct, we expect a new look and some exciting new AI features that go beyond what we've seen before.