During Google I/O the company announced some major improvements to the Google Photos app, which include making the Memories feature a little more sensitive.
Among the new features includes the ability to remove a single photo from a Memory, if it’s painful to look back on for some reason, rename the Memory or remove it completely from the annual reminders.
Google says the feature is designed to ensure Memories are things you actually want to reminisce about. Whether it’s a break up, a loss or a rough time in your life, you may not want to be reminded of it.
Google also says it has heard from the transgender community that members may not wish to see images of themselves that may bring back painful memories, so it has been working with GLAAD on ensuring the feature is more inclusive. There’ll be new controls rolling out to address this, Google says.
During I/O Google also revealed Memories will appear when you’re scrolling through the Photos grid, which should break things up a little bit. You’ll see the ‘best of the month’ within the feed, for example.
The keynote also saw Google announce new types of Memories for more diverse religious celebrations like Diwali, Lunar New Year and Hanukkah, while there’s some machine learning tech tech that’ll pick out familiar elements of photos, like the backpack you’ve worn while travelling around the world (in the beforetimes obviously), for example.
Another new feature is involves those times you take multiple versions of the same photo in order to try and perfect it. Using computational photography, Google will take the small elements of movement between those photos in order to create a “Cinematic moment” of sorts.
In a blog post Google says: “Best of all, Cinematic moments can be created with any pair of nearly identical images — whether they were captured on the latest smartphone or scanned from an old photo album.”
Elsewhere, Google announced a new Locked Folder where you can harbour photos you’d rather not show up when you’re scrolling through your device in company.
Google says the new features will begin rolling out to the Google Photos app from today, rather than alongside Android 12, which is coming later this year.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
