Advertisement

Google Photos' web version now behaves like a native app

It now looks and feels like more than a website.

Not everyone can justify downloading the Google Photos app on their phone, and that just hasn't been an option on computers. Now, however, you don't have to think about that choice: users have discovered that Photos is now available as a Progressive Web App. You may have to manually enable PWA support in Chrome to make them work, but this provides a look and feel closer to that of the native photo management tool without a sizeable download. You can install the app on your Android phone's home screen or, with Chrome 67, as a shortcut on your desktop.

There are still limitations to the web version. You can't see offline photos or receive push notifications (say, when the Assistant has produced a new edit). If those aren't deal-breakers, though, this should be a viable alternative when you can't (or just don't want to) install conventional software to manage your image library.