During today’s keynote address at Google’s annual I/O conference for developers, the company announced a trio of smart features powered by machine learning intelligence.
For starters, the app now automatically curates albums for the user.
Even better, Google Photos provides suggestions when sharing photos with others. As a bonus, there’s now an Apple Photos-like feature for ordering printed photo books from within the app.
But first, check out the new features for yourself in Google’s video embedded below.
Sharing suggestions
Photos now uses Google’s machine learning technology to remind you when it’s time to share some photos. The app automatically select the right photos and even suggest who you should send them to based on who was in the photos.
All that’s left for you to do is review the choices the app’s made on your behalf before hitting that Send button. People you’re sharing with will see all your photos and get a reminder to add theirs too. Your sharing activities are collated in the app’s new Sharing tab.
This feature will be rolling out on Android, iOS and web in the coming weeks.
Automatically curated albums
Google Photos can now automatically share relevant photos with specific people. Say you took a bunch of photos of your kids: Photos may offer to automatically share them with your wife.
Called Shared Libraries, it lets you give a person access to your full photo library.
Don’t worry, you can easily choose to limit sharing by having the app include just the photos of certain people or the images taken from a certain date forward. When the other person shares their library with you, you can automatically save their photos to your own library.
Shared Libraries will be rolling out on iOS, Android and web in the coming weeks.
Photo Books
Like with Apple Photos or services like Shutterfly, you can now order a printed coffee table book comprised of your best photographs without ever leaving the app. Simply select the images you’d like to fill your album with and Google’s machine learning algorithm will pick the best shots, removing duplicates and poor quality images.
When placing your order, choose between a high-quality twenty-page softcover book for ten bucks a piece or a hardcover variant for twice as much. Your photo book will be delivered to that special person in your life in the mail.
This feature is rolling out today in the US on web, and on Android and iOS next week.
“We’ll bring photo books to more countries soon,” said the search giant.
Another feature that’s coming soon to Photos: personalized suggestions for photo books (i.e. your trip to the Grand Canyon, time with family during the holidays, your puppy and so forth). Machine learning powers features in other Google apps, including smart replies in Gmail for iOS and the newly launched Assistant for iPhone app.