Google Photos adds Chromecast support, labels and sharing

At its event today, Google has announced a new range of updates for its Google Photo image management service and is bringing support for the Chromecast as well as naming labels and album sharing with other people.

Chromecast sharing lets you share your images to the big screen, instead of having to pass your phone around to show your friends and families. With the latest update, when you’re in the Google Photos app and you have a configured ChromeCast, you can just tap the Cast button and it will share the images to the big screen.

A great feature is being able to flick through your images on your phone and only sharing the ones you select to the TV, which is perfect if you’ve got some private photos from your holiday that you’d rather your family and friends didn’t see. Chromecast support means you can also share any videos and animations created by Google Photos directly to your big screen as well.

One of the biggest challenges with having a large collection of photos is being able to find the images you want and while Google Photos does a decent job of picking images that match your search, it’s about to get a whole lot better. With the latest update, you can now add name labels to images which will improve the machine learning experience.

For example, if you take a bunch of pictures of your family at Christmas, you can add the name label “family” and then when you search for “family at Christmas”, Google will use machine learning and facial recognition to pick out just those photos. Most importantly, the names are completely private and Google says they are not used for targeting purposes.

The last new feature in Google Photos is arguably the best but you’ll be waiting a little while for it; a key problem with having a shared collection of photos is having to still tell people when you’ve added more or updated the album. With the new Google Photos sharing features, you’ll be able to invite friends to view and contribute to your albums, which is perfect if you’re trying to collect all the photos from your wedding in one single location.

Once they’ve joined, they’ll receive notifications whenever you add a new photo and they can add the photos to their own collections with just a single tap. A key thing that differentiates this feature from others – it is after all, very similar to Apple’s shared photo stream – is that it works across both iOS and Android meaning you can share the albums with ease to any of your friends who use an iPhone.

The updates to Google Photos certainly aren’t massive on their own but collectively, they make a great product even better. Although it’s only a few months old, Google Photos – which was born out of the mess that is Google+ – is already one of the best consumer photo products on the marketplace and the new update will only serve to make it even better.

What do you think of the Google Photos update? Let us know your views in the comments below!

Nexus 6P Special Edition: Japan gets an exclusive Gold color variant

Google has just finished officially taking the wraps off the new Huawei-made Nexus 6P, and it has already begun to appear in Google Stores around the world. Curious to see if the Japanese store had been updated given the imminent launch here, the investigation was met with a bit of a surprise. A golden one, at that.

Lo and behold, a “Nexus 6P Special Edition” is located on the Google Store page, just below the “standard” product. The sole differentiating factor about this device appears to be the Gold color variation. Currently there is no option to purchase it, rather the page just allows you to join a waiting list. It is unknown as to what storage variants will be offered; Sony for example has often sold only the highest storage options for some of its online-exclusive Walkman color variants. As Google has not offered anything of this nature before, it remains to be seen what kind of liberties are placed on the purchase conditions.

It is also unclear as to which other markets will or may receive this color variation. Given that the official press event made no mention of the color whatsoever, it is likely that the USA will not receive it at the moment. A perusal of the UK Google Store failed to show it present there as well. Given that Gold colored products seem to sell particularly well in Asia (especially China), this may very well end up being a truly limited product, at least with respect to regional availability.

#gallery-1
margin: auto;

#gallery-1 .gallery-item
float: left;
margin-top: 10px;
text-align: center;
width: 50%;

#gallery-1 img
border: 2px solid #cfcfcf;

#gallery-1 .gallery-caption
margin-left: 0;

/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

It is also possible that the color will become a standard variant at a later date, at which point it could be available in all markets worldwide. At the very least it is curious that Japan gets some special love from Google, especially given that the Nexus One and Nexus S were skipped here entirely, as was the Sand (Gold) color option for last year’s Nexus 9 tablet.

For reference, the Huawei Nexus 6P features the following specs:

For more coverage on the device, be sure to check out our official announcement post here, and stay tuned to Android Authority for future developments and updates on this story and the new Nexus products.

What are your thoughts on the Gold Nexus 6P? Does the color look good on it, or are Google and Huawei just trying to cash in on the latest craze? Would you buy it if offered in your country? Please take the survey below, and then leave your thoughts in the comments section!

(function () ());