Google Photos update for Android brings a major redesign

Google Photos is now receiving a new design, one of the biggest updates the app has gotten since 2016. The update brings instantly noticeable changes to the interface: the hamburger menu has been removed, along with the search bar that stood on top.

The search option can now be found in the bottom navigation bar, alongside four other tabs: Photos, For you, Sharing and Library. When you tap on the search tab, instead of the keyboard popping up immediately, you first get suggestions across several categories: People and Pets, Places, and Things. Clearly, this feature uses Google’s object recognition algorithms. We’ve had these for a while, but now, having pictures pre-sorted should help with finding what you’re looking for. Your screenshots, selfies, videos, Motion Photos, PhotoScans, and 360 Photos and Videos are grouped together below.

Additionally, the Albums tab is missing, but its contents can be found in the new Library section, which also stores the archive, the trash and your favorites. Another change is the account picker, that now gets Photos settings, Help & Feedback and an option to free up storage from your phone, which looks like the version of the app’s section on an iPhone.

Unfortunately, this appears to be a server-side update and has only been activated to a small percentage of users. We expect it to roll out to all Google Photos users eventually.

Here is what the new Google Photos looks like in screenshots courtesy of Android Police: