What you need to know
- Google Photos is rolling out with a new "documents" category.
- This new section will collect photos with visible text and categorize them based on their type.
- The update has started rolling out but has yet to reach a wide number of users.
One of the best things about Google Photos is how it leverages AI to categorize your photos into various, easy-to-find collections. Recently, the app started integrating Google Lens features, such as a copy/paste tool that pulls text from images. Google is taking things a bit further by categorizing all of your photos with text into its own "Documents" category.
Some users are noticing the new Documents section when navigating to the Search tab in Google Photos (via Android Police). Once inside, your images will be further categorized based on the type of "document" the app thinks it is. For instance, images of text messages will get their own album, as will cook covers, receipts, posters, signs, etc. There's even a section for identity documents, making it easy to find an image of your driver's license or any other personal identification should you need it.
Source: Android Police
Android Police notes that it doesn't seem to get everything right, but there's no doubt that the new Documents section could be beneficial. Google recently released an Area 120 app called Stack, which acts as a document scanner, taking images of documents and categorizes them, separating your receipts from bills, car notes, IDs, and more. Plenty of people may find similar usability from the new Google Photos feature, especially during tax season in the U.S.
The feature doesn't seem to be live yet on all the best Android phones but is likely rolling out as a server-side update. It may help to make sure you've updated to the latest version of Google Photos.
