Google Photos launched in 2015 as an online photo and video storage platform, but over the past eight years it has grown to include more, such as photo sharing. But if you use Google Photos only to store and share photos, you’re missing out on a lot of useful features.
Here are five Google Photos features you should try now.
Search for words in pictures
Let’s say you get a new device and need to enter your Wi-Fi password. You took a picture of the password months, or even years ago. Instead of digging through your photos to find the password, you can search for “Wi-Fi” or any other phrase in your Google Photos library.
Google Photos uses optical character recognition, so it recognizes words in your photos. All you have to do is type the phrase into the search function and Google Photos will find images with that phrase in it.
Make your next purchase from a photo
When shopping for large items, like a couch or dining room table, you may want to shop around to make sure you’re getting the best deal. You can run your Google Photos Google Lens to find similar products to ensure you are not scammed.
You can also use Google Lens to identify and purchase other items, such as food, plants, and clothing, and you can use it to translate and read signs for you. How to use Google Lens in the mobile app.
1. Open Google Photos on your phone or tablet.
2. Tap the photo you want to use Google Lens on.
3. Tap the Google Lens icon near the bottom of the screen — the icon has three rounded corners and a dot instead of the fourth corner.
4. Google Lens generates a new menu at the bottom of the screen with options like Translate, search and Act. Tap the one you want to access.
You can use Google Lens in the desktop version of Google Photos, but it only transcribes and translates text into images. This is how you use it.
1. Go to Google Photos and sign in to your account.
2. Click on the photo you want to use Google Lens on.
3. Near the top of the photo, you should see a bubble with the Google Lens icon and text that reads “Copy text from image.” The text in the image appears next to your photo in a separate menu.
Hide specific people and dates from Memories
Memories shows you photos and videos from years ago, content based on certain events and places, and items with certain people present in them. However, Google allows you to hide these images thanks to the company’s facial recognition software. It’s useful if you break up with your partner and don’t want to see their stupid face anymore.
Here’s how to hide certain people and places on your mobile device.
1. Open the Google Photos app.
2. Tap your profile in the top right corner.
3. Tap Google Photos settings.
4. Tap Memories.
From here you can choose Hide people and pets or Hide date. To choose people & pets picks up the faces of people and pets in your photos, and you can choose as many to hide as you like. To choose date asks you to give it two dates, a start and end date, and any photos within those dates will not appear in your memories.
You can do this on desktop as well.
1. Go to Google Photos and sign in to your account.
2. Click settings.
3. Click the arrow next to it Memories.
You will see the same Hide people and pets and Hide date alternative, as works the same way as the app versions.
Make a scrapbook or canvas print
With Google Photos, you don’t need to go through a third-party store or website to make a scrapbook or print your photos on a canvas. You can put all of these together and buy them in Google Photos via the Print Shop.
You can go to the printer in the mobile version of Google Photos – represented by a shopping bag in the upper left corner of the screen – and the desktop version – located on the left side of the screen. Once here, you can choose to make a canvas print, scrapbook or photo prints of your photos. Google Photos also shows you the starting price for each item. You can have your items shipped to your home or delivered to a local participating store for pickup.
Read more: Best photo books for 2023: Shutterfly, Mixbook, Snapfish and more
Edit the sky
This photo was taken around 4am in January.
Zach McAuliffe/CNET
Not every day can be blue skies and sunny. If you are one Google One subscriber but you might be able to make it look like that in your photos. Google Photos has tons of editing options, and one called Sky lets you adjust how the sky looks. The feature won’t make a photo taken at night look like it was taken at noon, but you can at least make that night photo look like it was taken at dusk.
For more on Google services, check out why you should download Google Maps offline before your trip and how to blur your house on google maps.
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