Google Photos rolls out 'undo device backup' feature on Android

by · Android Police

Summary

  • Google Photos' "Undo device backup" feature is now out for Android users
  • The tool allows users to delete photos from the cloud without losing them on their device.
  • Google Photos boasts various tools like AI tagging, automatic uploading from multiple devices, and Google Gemini integration for a seamless photo management experience.

Google Photos is one of, if not the best photo backup apps on the market today. There are great alternatives out there, such as Flickr, Amazon Photos, and F-Stop Gallery, but none of them have the user base that Google Photos can garner. Over the years, it has been updated to include some nifty new features, and with some light AI integration, it’s easy to remove unwanted parts of your photos with Magic Editor and Magic Eraser. All that being said, there are a lot of great things that Google Photos gives people the capability to do, and if you’ve got a Google One subscription, you can store unimaginable amounts of photos. One of the best new features that Google has released on Photos in recent times was first released on iOS, but it’s now available for Android.

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We originally talked about this feature back in December when it was released for Google Photos for iOS, but now, Google has announced that “Undo device backup” is now available on Android devices. This tool gives users the ability to delete photos from the Google Photos server but not their device. After deleting your backup, the Backup feature will be turned off automatically on that device. Instructions are simple (via Google):

  1. On your Android device, open the Google Photos app.
  2. At the top, tap your Profile picture or Initial and then Photos settings and then Backup.
  3. To view the off-screen items below, scroll.
  4. Tap Undo backup for this device.
  5. Next to “I understand my photos and videos from this device will be deleted from Google Photos,” check the box.
  6. Tap Delete Google Photos backup.

Memories pressed between the pages

Source: Android Authority

In addition to Google Photos’ “Undo device backup” feature, Google has been hard at work to expand its Memories feature. First introduced in 2019, Memories keeps users coming back to the app with curated slideshows and collections of grouped images and videos over the years. Whether that’s a collection of you and your dog over the years playing over playful music, or “then and now” pictures, it’s one of the best features on the app. Soon, Memories could go full screen in Photos, giving it a much more immersive experience for users. Additionally, Memories is coming to more devices (like Smart TVs, digital photo frames, tablets, and more) soon, although no timeline is out.

There are a lot of great tools that Google Photos has stocked within its interface, so it can be easy to miss some more useful ones. It’s easy to download your photos to your device, automatically upload your photos from not just your phone or tablet, but your computer, too, and use AI tagging to automatically identify objects, people, locations and more to create albums that correspond with those elements. Speaking about AI, Google Gemini is starting to creep into Photos, but in a small way. The “Ask Photos” tab within the latest versions of the app isn’t prominently featured on the home tab, but you can access it with the start button on the bottom-right side. There’s a lot to like about Photos, and its continued support from Google gives us comfort that it won’t go to the wayside like other Google products often do.