Use Google Photos? Five tips to make the most of the photo app

Apart from backing up your photos to the cloud, Google Photos offers a range of interesting features that you may not be aware of. Here are some of them.

5 simple tricks to efficiently use Google Photos. (AFP)

Google Photos, a great tool for managing your photos and videos, allows round-the-clock access to data files saved in cloud storage. Available on both iOS and Android platforms, it has become the preferred photo app for many -- thanks to its simplistic user interface and aspects of futuristic technology such as machine learning, image recognition and artificial intelligence. Before we tell you the secret sauce on using Google Photos efficiently, there are a few things you should know about the application.

Google Photos is a free cloud storage application that automatically organises your photos on your device. The company claims to offer free back up for unlimited photos and videos, but there's a catch. The unlimited photos and videos should be up to 16-megapixel and 1080 (FHD) pixels resolution respectively. If you want to back up the data files in their original quality, Google offers "limited free storage" that uses space in your Google Account. Check your Google storage here.

Tip 1: Remove photos from your device

Google Photos can be a great tool to ensure that your photos and videos don't take up too much space on your device. This is quite useful if you have an inexpensive phone with low storage. With Google Photos' "Free Up Space" option, you can remove content that has already been backed up on the cloud.

To do so, tap on the menu button > Free Up Space > Free up xx amount of data already backed up.

While you cannot stop friends from looking at your gallery, you can create a separate folder for more personal photos that you do not want shared. Also, don't confuse archive photos with deleting. While archiving keeps your photos till the next time you need them, deleted images will remain in the recycle bin only for a few days.

Tip 3: Create Collage/Movie/Animation

Google Photos has some fun features as well. You can use the application to create collages by selecting photos from your gallery. The app also lets you create a small movie or animation in a similar fashion. To use these features, tap on the three dots placed at the right corner of the search bar on top. The best thing is: Google Photos lets you customise and edit each photo or combination before posting the collage.

Tip 4: Share on YouTube

One of the most useful but hidden features of Google Photos is the ability to directly share videos on your YouTube account. If you run a YouTube channel and have just shot a video on your device, you can use the Google Photos app to edit and directly share it there. A nifty feature for video bloggers.

Tip 5: The power of AI

One of the best things I like about Google Photos is the advance machine-learning capabilities incorporated into the application. For instance, a user can simply search "me" to find all the photos that feature him/her.

While Google Photos gives you suggestions such as "selfies", "videos" and "movies", you can narrow down your search by just typing "mountains" to view photos from your recent trip to a hill station. Or you can simply search "cars" to see photos with cars. Well, you get the point. If you have enabled geo-location on photos, the search gets a little more accurate.

Last but not the least, Google Assistant automatically creates videos and collages for you to share. It automatically aggregates the best photos or videos of the day, making your social media experience a little easier.