Google Photos gets updated with improved sharing features
Google is adding three new features to its Photos platform that are designed to make sharing pictures easier. The first is to tackle the problem of wanting to share a cool image with your friends in a living room setting. Currently, you'd be forced to pass your smartphone from person to person, but that's all about to change. Now, as long as there's a TV with a Chromecast plugged in, a user can push the shots straight to the big screen. Rather than just mirroring the device's display, however, the feature enables you to choose what you want your friends and relatives to see. That way, if you'd rather not run the risk of sharing an inappropriate notification or not-safe-for-work background image, you can run the show as if it was an old-school slide projector.
Secondly, Google is letting multiple Photos users subscribe and contribute their images to a single album. That way, if two people are snapping away at a local concert, they can pool their resources into one directory. Even better, is that third parties can then subscribe to this feed and get notifications when new pictures have been added. The example that was given at the show was that faraway relatives can see their grandkids grow up, their devices buzzing every time more snaps are added.
Thirdly, the firm is enabling users to tag the important people in your life and search for them with tags, which is hoped will make finding that one great image a piece of cake. The first and third features will be hitting Android this week, with web and iOS variations expected to land at some point in the near future. Shared Albums, meanwhile, is tipped to launch "later in the year," which we'd take to mean shortly before the holidays.
Get all the news from today's Google event right here.
