5 Awesome Google Photos Features You've Got to Try

Do you use Google Photos? If you take a lot of photos and videos on your phone, Google Photos can help you manage them.
In this video, we reveal five awesome (and not always easy to find) features that will make your Google Photos experience infinitely better.
Discover, and start using, these five lesser known Google Photos features straight away.
Note: Not all the features of Google Photos we cover work in every country-- they depend on the privacy laws where you live so make sure you double check your app.
In this video:
- 1:35 Backing up your Google photos
- 3:08 Image recognition
- 5:15 Facial recognition
- 7:37 Freeing up space on your smartphone
- 9:36 Google Lens
Resources:
- Today's sponsor, Webinar Wednesday: dottotech.com/webinars/
- Google photos 2018: The one stop tutorial • Google Photos: Your on...
Curious about other tools that can help you get more organized? Grab a copy of Steve’s toolkit! dottotech.com/toolkit/
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[@StephenButlerOne]

Just last month Google photos notified me of a video it made of my daughter, photos from her being one charting her to now (ten). It wad titled 'they grow so fast'. It actually made my wife cry.

[@kanodourden]

Google gotcha

[@supercooled]

That’s scary. Google photos isn’t even 10 itself.

[@BobLarimer]

A great feature I love about Google Photos: I created a new folder and set that folder to be the only folder shown on my chromecast screensaver. Then while my wife and I were on vacation in Alaska we dropped pics in that folder regularly and the kids automatically got to follow along via the chromecast back across the country.

[@ShannaRiley]

Google Photos changed my photo organizing life. It took a few days to upload all the pictures on my computer into Google Photos, taken over a decade & a half from old digital cameras and early smartphones, but it was so worth it. Thousands of photos now easily found by date, location (at least the ones taken on later devices), face, and even object. The ease of organizing albums, sharing them, and the ability to find photos when before I would have to manually look through hundreds of dated folders has helped me see photos I hadn't seen in years (especially poignant when a lot of them feature loved ones who are no longer with us). It is incredibly easy to sync photos from my phone to Google Photos and access them on my pc in seconds (and vice-versa). Also, so much YES! to "Free Up Space". My old iPhone had hardly no space and I take a lot of photos and was always running out of room until I started syncing them all to Google Photos. I honestly cannot recommend Google Photos enough.

[@TravelingBrigitte]

I just found these features this past weekend. Organized my photos with facial and created an album of my current trip by location. What a time saver. So thrilled.

[@projectM1K3]

I found your editing really helpful in this video. I know it seems straightforward, but, as a teacher, I really appreciate the little things done to really help watchers understand the process. Thanks again!

[@DavidPopowich]

I use Google Photos every day and thank you for the Lens tip...... Powerful!

[@LANDSEAAIRCANADA]

Thank You DT Stay Awesome

[@larrywright7537]

Again another great instruction. The download of photos was AWSOME. And the Google Lens HMMMMMMMm I like it.

[@dcamusicstudiocopyrightfre3939]

I have just started using Google Photos, it looks amazing, and I now have much more space on my iPhone thanks to this .

[@LucasVanEnger76]

Every single smart phone (Android & Windows) that I have had I've the years has used Google Photos for archiving. That's about 9years worth of photos that have never been lost. It can be daunting to wade through it all but Google makes it easier.

[@iar1980]

I have a Google Pixel 2 XL and also an iPhone 7. I take all of my photos with the Pixel 2 XL, but the way it is immediately available on Google Photos on the iPhone is simply amazing.... I enjoyed this video, and loved your enthusiasm about sharing these tips. Reminds me of a small kid getting a new toy 😊

[@alexnuno]

Google photos is a game changer for me for a long time now. Thanks for the great video Steve.

[@mduke555]

Thanks! I'm a fan of Google Photos and I've been using it for a couple of years, but I still learned new features from this video!

[@Nassangler]

Thank you, Steve, for another terrific instructional and informative video. This is one of the best I have viewed from anyone on KZbin.

[@M1cha3lP]

The archive advice was great. I use Google Photos every day and didn't know this.

[@rauldiaz5758]

Thrilled about your G lens demonstration! Thanks Steve.

[@rodgill100]

Thanks again Steve, Love learning more about the apps I use.

[@keithmorley7297]

Excellent tool! Thanks for sharing!

[@tonyo.6114]

Absolutely love your video!!!! Thank you for all you do!!!! Very well explained too!!!

[@Silva007ish]

Steve i love your channel. I have learned so much and when I was trying to organize my wealth of photos from iPad, telephones,cameras, your video helped me decide about using google photos. The feature I love love love...is creating an album and then sharing with those specific people who are in those photos.just a great way to keep track of all our STUFF. THANKS AGAIN!

[@stylesformiles79]

Steve, Can't say how helpful your information is! I'm always sharing your videos! Thank you for all you do!

[@annkeiper2082]

Thanks for your help and time

[@anwarmanaf]

Nice video! You can also search for specific images of saved persons like 'John with cap' or 'John in car'. This helped me a lot to find the pictures. Thanks Google!

[@gosdotcom]

Great video Steve. I didn't know about Google Lens. Wow!

[@udavemartel]

Very interesting. Thanks. Showed me a couple of things I didn't know about.

[@iqbal6145]

Very infomative thanks a lot!

[@drewr2983]

Amazing tip. Thank you.

[@delboyinoz1]

Google Lens just blew me away , incredible. Thanks Steve 👍🏻👍🏻

[@GeeksOnTour]

I'm SOO glad you love Google Photos! I (aka Chris Guld) am a volunteer for Google Photos Forum, a Top contributor, I love using and teaching Google Photos. Keep spreading the word. We are also happy Patrons of Dotto Tech. Just one comment on downloading from Google Photos to computer - Takeout is messy, I like to download my albums one by one. Open the album, click the 3-dot menu and there is a "Download All" command. That makes a .zip file of that album. I do that every month, so I have all my best photos on my computer's hard drive.

[@marietamccune84]

Geeks on Tour , we need more videos on what you were saying! What is a “ takeout “ ? I did not understand what exactly I need to do with the “3 dots menu” ... Would you do a video about Google Photos? Thank you!

[@dottotech]

Great suggestion, Thanks!

[@YoungDen]

@@marietamccune84 - Basically if you open on a desktop and you want to upload to local drive there is a option to save photos to Drive which you can then save to local storage. Not sure what the "takeout" part is but I save photos from time to time especially with wallpapers from my phone to use as a desktop wallpaper.

[@janeleekeller]

Geeks on tour : Do you apply Favorites ❤️ ?

[@GeeksOnTour]

Takeout is the Google site that Steve showed in this video for saving all your photos to your computer. I'm saying that you can download specific albums by opening the album and clicking the 3-dot menu, then Download all.

[@Jerrysailfar]

Ok Dotto you are the man!!! After weeks of trying I finally got Google Photos to do Backup Complete. About to start learning the search techniques!!!! Thank you for all your KZbins! Yeouwee

[@dottotech]

Great to hear!

[@vishalparkar]

Thanks for the video, as I wanted to share a similar one to my friends who are unaware of it!👍

[@StefanLorde]

Your pictures look soooo cool! Thanks for sharing.

[@charlescelano8039]

Another great video Steve. Thanks for these great tips. I am moving more and more towards everything Google thanks to you.

[@00pisani49]

Very fun, thanks. Like your famous dog sleeping behind you. Cute

[@rmt9321]

I love Google lens I use it all the time. Great video

[@maryleach9015]

I was going through my saved youtube videos and came across yours so I decided to watch it. I am a big fan of Google as I also when I have time do the reviews where I have been, I have been using the section of places where we have been over the years and found it very helpful, I didn't realise the part about when Google asked if was the same person you answered that for me and now I know, I also have used the lens again didn't realise what it was for, I have been following your videos on KZbin and found them quite helpful, thankyou for the great information.

[@NickNimmin]

I had no idea this existed. Thanks!!!

[@dottotech]

Do you have all the features in Thailand Nick?

[@notapro968]

Such a cool video. Really helpful Thanks!

[@Hyperperch]

Just starting to learn Google I'm excited about this. You've taught me alot and turned a light bulb on. I think Google leads the pack and strives to be the best. thank you !

[@debkennedy9397]

Thanks for this Steve! You have saved my messy photo dilemma.

[@dvl56]

Fantastic video. Great features, I had no idea!

[@denwin5801]

Real help !!

[@swrennie]

I'm usually the guy showing people how their phones work at parties...fun, huh? Didn't know about Google Lens - thanks!

[@baileywilliams3559]

Haven't read any comments but I searched for a color like 'red' and it found all photos with red in it!!! I thought that was amazing. 😀

[@rajeshbhosale2008]

Thanks Steve 😀👍🏻

[@nr3rful]

Great video....I have been using Google photos for years

[@j.buckholm]

I love u dottotech ❤️

[@Shrimpspiration]

Google photos is amazing. You can also search by; 1. The type of food you ate when you took a picture 2. The color of the dress 3. Two people together 4. Recognizes car models

[@t091293]

I love your vids dude, really enjoy all of them!

[@calmgirlify]

Thank you.

[@sirthomas9835]

Love your in depth explanations of Google features. I have many, many photo albums on my phone. Is there a way to arrange Google Photos to maintain those same albums without creating each separate album and moving all the photos into each album?

[@techopsguy]

Photo scan is another amazing feature in Google Photos for getting physical photos digitized

[@suebraschio6763]

Ohh I love my google photos I don't know what id do without omg I'd be in a mess lol :-)... gotta try the google lens on plants and birds .

[@bighardrive]

My Current laptop is a Samsung Chromebook Pro. It has the ability to run both Chrome and Android. It is interesting to work with the subtle differences in each platform.

[@marcelwolters8315]

Hi Steve, awesome! I am a google photos user, love it. Also just discovered lens. Something which is also mind blowing is the google translate app, there is the instant translation...just click the camera icon and hover over the text you want to translate and see what happens ;-) ...this links in to the lens feature. Looking forward to your next videos... Regards, from the Netherlands.

[@dottotech]

very cool!

[@MrBernie101]

What a font of information you are young man. As a fellow who won't see 75 again, I just love your infectious enthusiasm. I try to embrace most technology, and informative sites, such as yours go a long way to helping me. Thanks Steve, Bernie SW Wales, UK 👍👍

[@SamCordery]

Good overview Steve, but Google Photos does so much more. The manual editing is extremely powerful both on mobile and full browser, and the auto edits (previously called auto-awesome) are stunning. My favourite feature comes with creating an Album - the ease with which you can add and organise the images and videos within is superb, however you can also add text boxes, maps, travel maps etc to create a simple blog of a trip that is easily shared and easy to invite others to collaborate on. Occasionally Google will make you a video of a trip - very nice, but it's never quite to my liking - fortunately you can easily edit, trim and organise the clips, change mucks and titles etc. Truly a staggering product

[@albundy2740]

Remember that if you do a manual edit to save it as a copy else it overwrites the original photo in google photos, I found that out the hard way.

[@Animalshow78]

😐💘💘💘💘Nice... Content ..Love u sir..From india.👍👍👍👌

[@ckpearson1118]

Thanks so much for all the videos! I have to agree with Geeks on Tour. Google Takeout is messy. Please do an in depth video on Google Takeout for photos that simplifies the process! Thanks again!

[@WagnerBrenner]

Hi Steve! Face recognition is really amazing. It even recognizes me on pictures taken decades ago when I was still a baby (I’m 51). Incredible! What I would like to see on future updates: automatic duplicate detection and an option to exclude screenshots completely from uploads. Tks for the video!

[@suebraschio6763]

You can set it up to not save screenshots ..go to settings and upload and sync and turn off screenshots :-)

[@ClaudiomiroOliveira]

Fantástico realmente um excelente aplicativo, e muito boa sua apresentação. Parabéns um abraço do Brasil.

[@ponytailhawk]

I was organizing all my photos through Google photos in my God you wouldn't believe how many accidental screenshots I took in through the years lol

[@mac_khalifah]

First time here. Thanks for the video. Just wondering, what's your mic set up, sounds nice and clear and full bodied.

[@NacNacMOTT]

Hi thanks for the videos. I have learnt something today. :) about google content. As for face recognition this is not new Picassa did that already very well 10y ago :)

[@RoanCorporation]

Dottotech as always very good

[@peteandpuy]

Big fan of Google Pics. You know what it needs to be perfect? A way to to correct flairs, those green dots when you shoot into the sun. Now I have to bring the photo over to Picasa to correct. One feature away from being perfect!

[@janeleekeller]

Hi Steve 😊. I am actually a little earlier than usual, this "Morning" ?! I absolutely Love Google Photos 🤩. Facial recognition is outstanding, AND almost unreal ! I, have taken several thousand, (I sometimes take the same picture of an old photo more than once...Suffer from OCD, and TRY to get it as perfect as possible), pictures of old photo albums, via of, Google Photo Scan, which works perfectly, and of course, has enabled me to Digitizing, so far, two whole old albums, plus assorted loose pictures, all by myself !.....Many more to go !....I have completed the album my parents kept of me , from when they adopted me at age 21 months, my Father doing the picture taking, through to when I started taking pictures myself, of friends, houses, pets, boyfriend's, cars, all sorts of pictures. Followed by pictures of my ex Husband from when we were 14, right on through to our wedding, (Christ Church, Philadelphia, " where Benjamin Franklin is buried"), which was in 1967. By the time I reconnected with him, (first husband, Not Ben Franklin !), 50 years later, I had digitized, & enhanced all those wedding pictures, which looked like they were taken yesterday, and he at first was very hesitant to see them ! I told him how happy I was to have them, and he let me send them to him....In spite of the bad feelings he had about the way we were separated, I believe he was happy to see the pictures. Then I proceeded to digitize my Children's albums, of which there were several, and am now through with them....I want to do my Parents Albums, theirs separate, (before they were married, 1938), and theirs together. All these, I WILL be wanting to put in separate Albums . My Daughter, who thinks there is something "wrong" with me, because I want to take pictures of her, her son, or anyone else for that matter, has asked me to take pictures of her son's photo album. Which of course I will do 😒. I SO much Wish I had my phone when MY parents were alive, so I could have videos of them ! ☹️...I don't feel my Daughter is able to understand that ! Fortunately, where my Son, his Wife and their, one and a half year old Daughter are concerned, I won't be needing Photo Scan ! All the pictures I have taken of them, I took with Google Photos, via my phone, including their recent Wedding. Viva La Modern Technology, Google & Google Photos, (including Photo Scan) 🥂. Insidently, thank you for discussing, Uploading, and retrieving. I have yet to do that, as I have been very apprehensive about it ! Before I let you go, 😢, sorry !...I would like to mention I completely missed your very first Boomer Vlog, because just as I was listening to you, (my OCD causes me to do things by strict methods, which for me, means saving the Best to last. On that day, that was YOU), my phone completely shut down ! Red light blinking ! Could not turn it on ! I was a wreck !.....At 5 or 6 in the morning yet !!! Have since, obviously, fixed it. Will be anxiously awaiting next opportunity 😏 ! Sincerely, JaneLee ^_^ 🧓 9/25/18 5:24 AM

[@WarrenWilson]

Good job

[@RonDoyleVA]

You rock it. Basically you are me but you turned it into money. Good job.

[@ricksevans]

How about a video comparing backing up photos to iCloud vs. Google? What problems will you have if you decide to switch? Is _both_ better than either one?

[@Festus_Clamrod_]

Interesting run down.

[@yabosid]

Manual "stacks" would be a great feature as I find the albums cumbersome.

[@K-Kratos]

thank you

[@appuprasad9733]

Hi Steve, please do mention meaning of partial upload and the kinda of resolution it is uploaded to in comparison with original image size. Also does the pixel phone series upload in original quality in which pic was taken?

[@mruback3]

excellent video

[@the-wonder-of-it-all]

subscribed and will watch all your videos! thanks

[@dottotech]

welcome aboard!

[@benrex6403]

I saw the thumbnail and instantly I felt that I can trust this guy.

[@Hewagej]

very nice video

[@qabsar]

Great job explaining my friend. Can you have a video on how to backup to Dropbox? Thank you

[@dottotech]

We'll see about that. In the meantime, here are all helpful Dropbox videos you may watch: kzbin.infosearch?query=dropbox%20backup

[@susanczajka6327]

Awesome info. How do i get rid of all the duplicates in my photos???

[@tongkrut]

I have been using Google photos for just a few months, after years of trying to organise all my pics. from various cameras and phones this is the perfect solution, I cannot believe it hasn't been more advertised. However the back up and sync system for adding the photos appears to be lacking a method to move all my pics. from one computer to another, as I have numerous desktops and notebooks. The only way I have found is downloading all the photos on each device which takes hours. Is there not a way to copy the photos from an external drive onto a new computer then the sync option will just index the files, "Dropbox" does this so moving all my cloud storage is very fast.

[@sululal]

Thank you ! Thank for video. Learned a lot quickly from your video. I have a quick question though ie can you save the search pictures in a folder on your desk top? eg. your pet farley's all pictures in a folder on hard drive? I would appreciate your response.

[@dottotech]

You can download pictures in the share menu

[@Facemix]

Thanks Steve! Your channel just have a new subscriber! :)

[@fgarzaro]

I'm here for the first time.... AND FOR SURE IT WON'T BE THE LAST ONE!! ... Greetings from Guatemala!!

[@dottotech]

Glad to see you!

[@barrystraughan]

Great video. When you share photos with someone can they edit or even remove a photos from your account that you've shared with them?

[@Dr.translator]

You are amazing. Can you please make a video on how to delete duplicate photos on google photos? Thank you, All the best and Stay safe.

[@MyRetroWatches]

Thanks for this update video on Google photos. I converted over when I saw your first video! As much as I love all the features what i find extremely limiting and annoying is the sheer inability to have an album within an album!! I do not understand why with all this technology behind the app we the user cannot do this. For instance I collect and restore watches and have literally 100s I have an album for each restoration but I cannot group them all to one big album with subfolders. So when I scroll in my albums I have all my holidays watches family stuff all mixed together which is frustrating especially as each week there are more new albums being created. Can someone please explain why this , in my option , basic feature is not available?? For the life of me I can’t understand why. I want folder “holidays” and in there sub folders of all my holidays etc... Keep up the good work sir. Great content

[@albundy2740]

Have you tried creating albums that contain only relevant photos, as an example, if you have a restoration project for a rolex submariner then place a reference ticket in each photo in top corner and then if you search for the reference all the photos with that text will appear and then place all those photos in a folder with an appropriate name, I might try this myself actually.edit nope it couldn't search by text will try with a small pattern of some sort like a star.

[@photelegy]

I love using GoogleFotos!!! But I miss something in the searching. Is it possible to search for a specific file-type (.jpg, .png, .mkv, ...), file-size (>15MB, 5MP, 13000px, ...), movie-length (.mp4 & >10min, video & 5MB & ">12.5.18)? Like you can in the Windows File-Explorer or lot of other programs. Thank you very much for your answer!

[@Rohliable]

Everything Google simplifiied my life. Period!

[@utdoc43]

Steve--You've contributed some amazing technology video that are a perfect fit for us older citizens--yet still with some technology experience and curiosity! I have many gigs for photos backed up on external hard drives I"ve easily exceed the free 15 gigs of google drive if I try to store all my photos in Google Drive--and I really dislike subscription services (extra memory in this case. Yet, you described really cool AI power in Google Photos. My question is if that proprietary search capability can be focused on any proprietary PC having any generic Ext Hard Drive. Hopefully that would allow anyone to conduct powerful searches and collections of photos without having to be wedded to Google $$$, privacy, security? Thanks again for all you do to help us grateful subsribers.

[@LynxLee]

What I like a lot is the AI in it where I wanna find a picture of my wife and my daughter in the pictures.. I can just type their names and place and "and" in between. Example: "Daniel and Ming" would return only photos where my wife and I are in the pictures (provided you've labeled them as such)

[@RitchieClarkVoiceover]

Great content as always! I tried the toolkit link but your 'access now' button doesn't seem to be working?

[@dottotech]

We are on it, thanks!

[@1300miles]

Nice mixer in the background there. What model?

[@appleqor]

I can't make a 'Film' from photos & videos in a Shared album (of which I am the owner.) Do you know if this is by design? I can download said shared videos, then make them mine, then make a film, but I'm looking for an easier way. Do you know where a good place to go is to get answers to questions like this?!? THANKS, and great content!

[@kosfactor]

You can search for events, birthday, wedding. You can search for things, cars, cars. You can ask Google assistant to bring this up as well.

[@leemanny6425]

I was wondering if you could provide instructions on how to import contacts and saved e-mails from Microsoft outlook archives as well as pictures from the window base data files into google software?

[@MrTosha43]

Great video Steve,we don't have Google face recognition in the UK as yet.

[@idlersdream826]

I believe that's due to EU Privacy stuff, but I also use Amazon Photos and they recently introduced face recognition, so, inconsistent.

[@albundy2740]

As at today, 14Oct18, I have the face recognition for Google photos enabled and reside in the UK using a Windows pc and Android phone.

[@824Gary]

Watched your video on google photos, wow, amazing i took google photos for granted, not anymore

[@maherahmed1977]

Hello, thank you for the video, but the idea of the face recognition is still unclear and it is not available for everyone, would you please make a short video for that and again thank you.

[@marcoponce85]

Where do you get that subscribe motion graphic? I see others with it.