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This Popular iPhone App Just Got Upgraded with Clutch New Features

The changes (and redesign) were made to make the app even easier to use.

Google Photos redesign on iPhonePhoto by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

iPhone owners, there’s a good chance you use Google Photos as your go-to photos app. It’s popular because it offers way more free storage than Apple’s iCloud. Plus, it has a ton of cool features.

Just a month ago, Google Photos on iPhone gained some pretty cool AI-editing tools that were previously only available to Pixel owners. And now, Google is updating its photos app again with a refreshed look and a few new abilities.

And this time around, these new Google Photos features are rolling out to iPhone users first.

A Google Photos upgrade

Google Photos redesign on iPhone
The new three-dot menu, where all your actions as located, is in the top-right corner.
Google

As revealed in the company’s blog post, it’s redesigning Google Photos app — more specifically, the main Photos view within the app — to “bring you a simpler, more modern, and more intuitive UI.” In a nutshell, it’s making the app easier to navigate.

With this redesign, the Photos view in Google Photos is getting four important updates.

First, there’s a brand new light mode, which is the most significant change. With this, Google Photos will automatically match your iPhone’s light or dark mode preferences.

Second, a photo’s details of when and where it was captured will be more easier to find — or more “glanceable” — as that info will be located right at the top of each photo.

Google Photos redesign on iPhone
New, simplified controls are consolidated to the bottom of the photo.
Google

Third, below these new glanceable photo details, Google is adding “badges” that allow you to: quickly play or pause a Live or Motion photo, change the photo’s category, save a shared photo, or back up a photo.

Fourth, Google is adding a new three-dot menu in the top-right corner of Photos view. This is where you’ll be able to perform actions — such as About, Create, Cast, Save as, Download or Delete from device, and even Google Lens — on individual or groups of photos.

Google Photos redesign on iPhone
You can see the details of when and where the photo was taken, right above the photo.
Google

When’s it coming?

Google claims that the update to Google Photos is now available on iPhones and will be coming “soon” to Android smartphones.

If you’re not seeing the changes, you can manually update the Google Photos by opening the App Store app on your iPhone > selecting your profile icon > tapping Apps > tapping My Apps > scrolling down to the Google Photos app, and selecting “Update.”

To learn more about the changes coming to Google Photos, you can read the company’s blog post, here.