Google I/O 2015: Google Photos, optimized for organization, viewing, and sharing with unlimited storage

Selecting photos to share or organize is made quicker through the new touch and hold functionality in Google Photos.

Google I/O

• How Google is trying to simplify Android
• Google bets machine learning can create an edge with Android, apps, cloud
• 8 reasons why Google is vulnerable
• Brillo: OS for Internet of Things
• Android Pay announced: Let the Google mobile wallet confusion continue
• Google opens Cloud Test Lab, expands Cloud Messaging to iOS
• Smart home blueprint still in drafting stage
• How context is slowly killing off the mobile app menu
• Google Photos: Unlimited storage

Some of the Google Material Design elements appear in Photos, including the ability to swipe between the different ways of viewing your photos.

Google I/O

• How Google is trying to simplify Android
• Google bets machine learning can create an edge with Android, apps, cloud
• 8 reasons why Google is vulnerable
• Brillo: OS for Internet of Things
• Android Pay announced: Let the Google mobile wallet confusion continue
• Google opens Cloud Test Lab, expands Cloud Messaging to iOS
• Smart home blueprint still in drafting stage
• How context is slowly killing off the mobile app menu
• Google Photos: Unlimited storage

Google has taken its advanced search technology and makes finding photos quick and easy. Google automatically organizes your photos in a number of helpful ways.

Google I/O

• How Google is trying to simplify Android
• Google bets machine learning can create an edge with Android, apps, cloud
• 8 reasons why Google is vulnerable
• Brillo: OS for Internet of Things
• Android Pay announced: Let the Google mobile wallet confusion continue
• Google opens Cloud Test Lab, expands Cloud Messaging to iOS
• Smart home blueprint still in drafting stage
• How context is slowly killing off the mobile app menu
• Google Photos: Unlimited storage

You can control a few settings in Google Photos. The grouping of faces works well and is one of those features I think people will greatly appreciate since most photos include people.

You can upload all of your photos with no storage limitation. This option limits you to 16 megapixel shots, which is likely just fine for most people. You can also upload original resolution photos, but these will count against your particular storage capacity.

Google's new Photos Assistant will automatically suggest creations that it makes from your photos. Like Google Now cards, you can simply swipe the suggestion card away or choose to accept the suggestion and then share it with family and friends.

The default Photos view shows your photos and videos organized by date.

To compare the iOS 8 Photos app to the new Google Photos app here you can see organization by years.

And in this view on an iPhone 6 Plus, you can see how iOS 8 organizes by collections. That's as far as iOS 8 goes though so then you are back to organizing by albums and searching just by file names.

I am loving the way that Google Photos organizes your photos by things. As you can see in this screenshot, things can include bridges, sunsets, boats, cats, dogs, activities, and more.

Your Google Photos can also be viewed by people and places. Tapping on a face will show you all photos with that person in the photo. Google Photos does a great job of showing the people as well.

Searching with the term dogs returns all the photos in my history that show my dogs. It was fun to revisit 2012 when we first received our pomeranian.

Google also organizes your photos by events, as shown here with an event from 2011.

I experience some great sunsets off my deck in WA State so it was cool to see how Google Photos brings them all together on one page.

Swiping to the left brings you to a menu where you can jump to areas of Google Photos or view the settings.

Google creates stories automatically, but with the Google Photos app on your phone you can now create albums, movies, stories, animations, and collages yourself.

While the photos timeline appears by default, you can also choose to view your photos in a few other ways by tapping the menu icon.

There are some basic editing tools in Google Photos, with a quick link to Snapseed if you want even more control.

Google I/O

• How Google is trying to simplify Android
• Google bets machine learning can create an edge with Android, apps, cloud
• 8 reasons why Google is vulnerable
• Brillo: OS for Internet of Things
• Android Pay announced: Let the Google mobile wallet confusion continue
• Google opens Cloud Test Lab, expands Cloud Messaging to iOS
• Smart home blueprint still in drafting stage
• How context is slowly killing off the mobile app menu
• Google Photos: Unlimited storage