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Apr 09, 2023

Google Photos rolls out much cleaner settings interface

The app has also started showing how much storage you save when deleting an

The app has also started showing how much storage you save when deleting an image

Google Photos is one of the best library apps for your favorite Android phone. The service may not be fully free anymore, but it still gives you a convenient way to store, find, share, and edit your photos, with increasingly more powerful tools. This complexity that was added slowly but surely is also reflected in Photos’ settings, which is pretty cluttered and hard to dive into at a glance. Google seems to have recognized this and is rolling out a much more organized look.

The new settings page is only showing up for a few people on version 6.39 of the app, as spotted by Telegram user Cătălin and confirmed by Android expert Mishaal Rahman. It looks polished and ready to be shipped to more people. Instead of a long scrollable list of very specific options and some descriptions and sections sprinkled in, the new design only has six top-level destinations where you can find the rest of the settings: Backup, Notifications, Preferences, Sharing, Apps & devices, and Privacy.

Before and after

While it may take a few more taps to find the right option, it's arguably much cleaner and easier to navigate this way, although some of the options aren't placed in the most intuitive places. For example, sharing options live both in the Privacy and the Sharing section, with the latter more concerned about partner sharing and skipped suggestions and the former presumably with link sharing. This could indicate that this redesign is still under development.

The one thing lacking from both the old and new version is a search option, though, which could speed up the process of finding the right setting even faster — especially if the options remain ordered the way they are right now.

At the same time, Photos has started to show just how much storage you save when you delete images for some people, both on the web and in the app. This is a nice touch that makes clear how impactful your decisions to delete multiple shots of the same scenes and subjects can be.

Manuel Vonau is Android Police's Google Editor, with expertise in Android, Chrome, and other Google products — the very core of Android Police's content. He has been covering tech news and reviewing devices since joining Android Police as a news writer in 2019. He lives in Berlin, Germany.Manuel studied Media and Culture studies in Düsseldorf, finishing his university career with a master's thesis titled "The Aesthetics of Tech YouTube Channels: Production of Proximity and Authenticity." His background gives him a unique perspective on the ever-evolving world of technology and its implications on society. He isn't shy to dig into technical backgrounds and the nitty-gritty developer details, either.Manuel's first steps into the Android world were plagued by issues. After his HTC One S refused to connect to mobile internet despite three warranty repairs, he quickly switched to a Nexus 4, which he considers his true first Android phone. Since then, he has mostly been faithful to the Google phone lineup, though these days, he is also carrying an iPhone in addition to his Pixel phone. This helps him gain perspective on the mobile industry at large and gives him multiple points of reference in his coverage.Outside of work, Manuel enjoys a good film or TV show, loves to travel, and you will find him roaming one of Berlin's many museums, cafés, cinemas, and restaurants occasionally.