Google Photos

Google Photos is a proprietary photo library by Google. It features advanced automatic sorting of all photo and video files on your device and cloud storage. It can also create smart albums for specific people and locations, create slideshows, movies, and more. You don’t have to download Google Photos on most Android devices, but it’s available on Google Play anyway. The iOS version is presented on the App Store. 

Design – 5/5

The Google Photos latest version offers a minimalistic interface with perhaps the fastest search algorithms amongst other apps on the market. You’re not required to tag anything due to automatic categories that include recognition of people, objects, and locations. Of course, you still can create good old albums for “Picnic in the forest” or “Wedding Party 2019”. 

Usability – 5/5

Google Photos app is a versatile photo-hosting app that combines features of photo storage and a basic photo and video editor. Using the default cloud storage, you can create unlimited backups content in 1080p and 16MP. The compression algorithms of Google Photos are incredibly soft. For this Google Photos review, we took several high-quality samples and checked quality degrading on iMac 5K. Samples in 4K 30FPS were compressed without quality loss, while both 4K 60FPS and 5K 30FPS were compressed to 4K 30FPS. It was impossible to tell the difference with eyes, though. That being said, you can feel free to delete images and clips from your phone to free up space. 

The editing suite allows you to make your photos look better in a few taps with adjustable filters and professional tools for lighting, shades, color levels, saturation, and more. If you want to expand them, you can download the advanced editor by Google, Snapseed. 

Features – 5/5

This app includes such must-have features as shared albums, automatic slideshows, and essential editing tools. It can sync with any of your cloud storages and backup files with minimal compression. The default cloud storage provides unlimited space for photos below 16MP and video in 1080p Full-HD quality. 

With the Google Lens engine, you can search something that’s hard to describe with words by the photo. It’s also able to read and translate text, detect creatures and animals, transform photos into events on Google Calendar, and even search for goods in online stores. 

In-app Purchases – 5/5

The free Google Photos storage doesn’t support large formats and high resolutions. You can download them for free only to a certain limit. Extra storage solutions are quite cheap and support 2K, 4K, and 5K video. 

The Bottom Line

Google Photos is more than just a gallery. It’s a universal cloud-based solution for storing and managing large files with minimal compression. It solves all your pains with sharing, backups, and other tasks you couldn’t even imagine you could do faster.

• Graphics 5
• Gameplay 5
• Controls 5
• Replay Value 5

Pros

Unlimited free storage for 1080p video and 16MP photos;
Detects faces, animals, plants, and objects;
Translates text from almost any language;
Suggests people for sharing.

Cons

No option to save 4K 60FPS video;
No viewing app for computers.