When Google first launched its Photos app, it immediately became one of the best ways to manage the image library on your phone. Over the years, Photos has continued to grow constantly adding new and exciting features along the way.
Today, marks another one of those occasions where Google has introduced a new way to utilize the precious memories you’ve captured. Rolling out in the latest 5.22 update of the app, is a live wallpaper option that our friends over at XDA-Developers spotted.
With this new feature, Google Photos will create a live wallpaper by cycling through photos in your Memories collection. In case you didn’t know, Memories are photo collections that the Photos app has created for you by using machine learning to group images based on the places or people within them. Google introduced this feature in 2019 along with ordering local prints of your images.
Now, it seems the sentimental search giant has come up with a new useful way to utilize the albums it creates. What good are the fantastic images you’ve captured if you never get to see them? Having them front and center on your phone will allow you to stroll down memory lane each time you unlock your device.
To use the new feature, you’ll need to be running the latest 5.22 version of Google Photos. If your app hasn’t updated already, you can snag version 5.22 from APK Mirror like I did and install it manually.
After you have the latest version installed, go to the wallpaper picker on your phone and select “live wallpapers.” From there, you should see an option for Memories. Selecting it will show you a preview as it cycles through the photos in your Memories and you can set it as your wallpaper.
Unfortunately, not all my AI curated Memories photos are winners. It would be a lot better if Google gave us a little control over what albums are used for the live wallpaper. Then I wouldn’t have to see things like product photos, selfies, or dimly lit noisy photos of food.
While it’s still upsetting that Google will end support for backing up your images for free in 2021, this new feature goes to show that Photos is more than just a backup tool. Google has taken what it has learned from the images we’ve stored on its servers and continues to find useful ways to help us rediscover what we captured.
