Five New Google Photos Features Coming to iPhones Before Androids

Google Photos is currently rolling out a number of interesting and useful upgrades, but, surprisingly, only for iPhones. These features, like a redesigned photo view, an upgraded actions menu, and actionable "badges" will come to Android users "soon." For now, here's everything new in Google Photos for iOS:

A light mode for the app

Let there be light. Starting now, Google Photos will match your iOS theme, so the UI will switch to light or dark based on system settings. The addition of a light theme doesn't excite me all that much, since my phone is always on dark mode. However, it will likely be a welcome feature for many people who prefer to have light mode enabled at least during the day, if not all the time.

Glanceable photos data

Google is also adding useful information above each photo you open. That includes the date, time, and the location where the picture was taken. This info has always been available, but you needed to manually choose to view it each time. I particularly appreciate the fact that you don't have to click to view a photo's geotag any longer.

A streamlined actions menu

Right next to this glanceable data, you'll find an action button. When you tap it, you'll see the following actions: About, Google Lens, Create, Cast, Save as (works for Live Photos taken with your iPhone), Download or Delete from device.

Keen Google Photos users will noticed some existing actions are missing here, but Google hasn't removed them. Those features are now under the Add to (+) button in the bottom bar, which now lets you organize photos into albums, archive photos, or move them to your Locked Folder.

New ways to manage photo stacks

You can also manage photo stacks and burst mode photos by tapping the new action button next to those photos' thumbnails. This menu lets you remove items from the stack, unstack the group entirely, multi-select photos to apply actions to all, and change your top pick in the stack.

Badges for quick actions

Google Photos for iOS now has a few useful badges that let you quickly change a photo's category, play or pause a Live Photo, save shared photos to your library, and back up photos or manage your storage. These badges appear above the photo you're viewing and they let you execute the actions with a tap.

All of these features are now available in Google Photos for iPhone, but there's no firm timeline for the Android version at the time of writing. Google says they'll reach your Android phone soon, but doesn't mention an expected release date yet.