At I/O 2021, Google has introduced a series of new features to Google Photos to bring your memories to life and give you greater control. A new feature called Little patterns leverages AI to find photos with unique patterns and surface them together. So if you've used the same bag for a few years, the new feature will collate photos of you wearing that bag in various places and highlight them.
Google says it will categorize photos by shapes and colors, so photos of similar-sized objects — like coffee mugs — will be surfaced together. Another new addition is Cinematic moments; it takes two nearly identical photos and create new frames by using neural networks, delivering moving images.
The feature looks incredibly cool, and the best part is that it works across Android and iOS. You can use the feature via photos stored in your camera roll, scanned photos, or just about any source.
Google is also offering more controls for your memories. You get the ability to remove people or time periods from your timeline, as well as removing individual photos from showing up in memories. From Google:
We specifically heard from the transgender community that resurfacing certain photos is painful, so we've been working with our partners at GLAAD and listening to feedback to make reminiscing more inclusive.
Lastly, Google is bringing locked folders to Google Photos; any photos added to this folder will need biometric authentication. All of these new features are rolling out to Google Photos over the summer.
