Google Photos Celebrates 10 Years with AI-Powered Editor
▼ Summary
– Google Photos, launched 10 years ago, remains highly popular and is receiving new features like easier album sharing and AI-enhanced editing tools.
– Initially offering unlimited free storage for compressed images, Google Photos now limits free users to 15GB shared across services like Gmail and Drive.
– Google Photos has over 1.5 billion monthly users and stores more than 9 trillion photos and videos, with automatic uploads from phone camera rolls.
– The platform revolutionized image search by allowing users to search for content within images, with over 370 million searches performed monthly.
– For its 10th anniversary, Google is integrating more AI into Photos’ editor, which is already used to edit over 210 million images monthly.
Google Photos marks a decade of innovation with powerful new AI editing tools, cementing its position as one of the most widely used photo management platforms worldwide. The service now boasts over 1.5 billion monthly active users who collectively store more than 9 trillion photos and videos—a testament to its enduring popularity despite changes to its free storage policies.
When Google Photos launched independently from Google+ in 2015, its promise of unlimited free storage for compressed images quickly won users over. Though the company later scaled back this offering, introducing a 15GB shared storage limit in 2021, the platform remains indispensable for millions. Many now opt for Google One subscriptions to expand their storage, but the core appeal—seamless photo backup and intelligent organization—keeps people coming back.
One of the service’s standout features has always been its AI-powered search, letting users find images by describing their contents. What once seemed groundbreaking is now standard, with 370 million searches performed monthly. But Google isn’t stopping there. For its 10th anniversary, the company is supercharging the editing experience with new AI enhancements, recognizing that users tweak 210 million photos every month.
The latest updates focus on smarter sharing and streamlined editing, leveraging the same AI models behind Google’s Gemini initiative. While exact details remain under wraps, the improvements aim to make touch-ups faster and more intuitive. Given how deeply Photos integrates into daily life—automatically backing up memories while nudging users toward premium storage—these AI-driven tools could become some of Google’s most frequently used features.
A decade in, Google Photos continues evolving, balancing user-friendly convenience with the realities of modern cloud storage. Whether through effortless organization or cutting-edge editing, it remains a cornerstone of how people preserve and revisit their digital lives.
(Source: Ars Technica)
