What you need to know
- Google is adding chat functionality to the Photos app.
- The feature requires both users to have a Google account.
- You can chat with one or multiple users.
As Google continues its uphill battle to create a viable — and successful — chat platform for Android, it's also experimenting with providing piecemeal chat functionality within its already successful apps. The Photos app now allows you to chat with your friends about the pictures you've sent them.
The change also simplifies sharing individual photos, which previously required you to create one-off albums for sharing, as Google's Jaanvi Shah explains. You now get a 'Send in Google Photos' option when you want to share your latest birthday bash pics. You can then select either a friend or a group of people to send the pictures to, which automatically creates — or adds the picture to — a chat between you and them.
You can seemingly also like photos within the chat or download them to your own Photos library to access later. The dedicated chat will likely also make it easier to keep track of which content you've shared with a particular person.
The new feature will roll out to Google Photos users on Android, iOS, and the web over the coming week.
