{"id":4761,"date":"2026-04-18T21:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T20:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovatenews.site\/index.php\/2026\/04\/18\/i-love-google-photos-but-i-wish-it-had-these-8-missing-features\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T21:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T20:46:18","slug":"i-love-google-photos-but-i-wish-it-had-these-8-missing-features","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovatenews.site\/index.php\/2026\/04\/18\/i-love-google-photos-but-i-wish-it-had-these-8-missing-features\/","title":{"rendered":"I love Google Photos, but I wish it had these 8 missing features"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The topic I love Google Photos, but I wish it had these 8 missing features<\/strong> is currently the subject of lively discussion \u2014 readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.<\/p>\n

This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies\u2019 decisions and competitors\u2019 reactions can quickly change the picture.<\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t just use Google Photos; I have over 50,000 photos in the app and on Google\u2019s servers. I\u2019ve been a loyal user since day one, and I rely on it to keep all my life\u2019s memories and my best photos (along with my NAS for backups). But the more I use it, the more I notice how Google Photos isn\u2019t perfect. Despite how much I love the app, there are still features I wish it had that would make the experience a lot more complete. And I\u2019d take any of these over any unnecessary AI and Gemini search or whatever. Here are the ones I\u2019d like to see.<\/p>\n

One of the most important features I wish Google Photos would implement is a full application for Google TVs. I know that I can cast photos and videos from my phone or computer onto my TV, but that isn\u2019t exactly seamless. Casting sometimes has hiccups and lags, and it only lets me experience part of the Google TV app. I also know that I can set my photos as screensavers on my TV, but once again, that\u2019s only part of the experience.<\/p>\n

Ideally, a native Google Photos app on Google TV would allow me to browse my photos and albums directly on the TV. No phone in my hand needed. I\u2019d be able to show photos and play videos, browse grouped people or locations, view my memories, and even search or ask Gemini questions about my photos to find the right one. A native app would be faster than casting and would allow me to use my physical Google TV remote without having to keep looking down at my phone the whole time.<\/p>\n

Google Photos currently stacks similar photos together, but that\u2019s the extent of its help in finding similar shots or duplicates. I wish there were a more robust system that only let me filter by full duplicates \u2014 there was a time when Photos bugged out and uploaded some photos twice, so I\u2019d like to reclaim that space without manually going over it. Another benefit would be the ability to look at photo stacks exclusively, instead of trying to look at my entire library to spot the stacks. That way, I could also find similar pics and try to clean up as many of the ones that I don\u2019t want as possible.<\/p>\n

Right now, there\u2019s no such thing. I have to manually go from photo to photo, looking for stacks, and trying to see if I want to delete those. As for real duplicates, forget it. Photos does not point them out.<\/p>\n

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Searching is one of my favorite features of Photos. I can easily say something like, \u201cMe in Slovenia at night with a lake,\u201d and find the nighttime shot I took in Bled without remembering the exact town\u2019s name. However, there are more variables that Google could, and should, add to its search feature. With a growing library of pics, these become essential for finding the needles in the haystack.<\/p>\n

for example, I\u2019d love to be able to find photos that don\u2019t have a location assigned to them, so I can go in and add it where it matters. Same for photos that don\u2019t have any time \u2014 for example, I play a lot of escape games and get sent photos taken by other phones and cameras, with no date attached, and it would be nice to go in and tag those with the right time.<\/p>\n

I also wish Photos would help me filter photos that don\u2019t belong in any albums, so I can see if I\u2019ve missed tagging some shots or categorize them better. The same goes for photos that don\u2019t have unnamed faces. Instead of going one by one and seeing if the face is tagged or not, I\u2019d just want to see the pics where Photos detected a face but couldn\u2019t put a name on it. That way, I can quickly go through them.<\/p>\n

And finally, searching in albums and searching in shared albums and shared libraries would be essential for me too. I share my entire library with my husband, and he always has to scroll manually through hundreds of pics to find the one with the potting soil brand we saw a couple of weeks earlier.<\/p>\n

In general, Google Photos is pretty good at detecting a face in a photo, even if it doesn\u2019t immediately identify it properly. In those cases, it allows you to assign a name and face to that person. All good. The problem is all the other instances where Photos does not recognize a face at all, even though there\u2019s one.<\/p>\n

I like taking pics of my husband walking places, and although technically, there\u2019s no \u201cface\u201d in these pics, just a backside, I\u2019d love to be able to tag them under his name. Sometimes, Photos is smart enough to recognize that it\u2019s a human and even assign the photo to him directly, but most times, it just doesn\u2019t even give me the option to add it manually. No face detected means no way to add a face. Photos should fix this oversight.<\/p>\n

I love capturing Motion photos on my Pixel phone, and looking back to see all the funny little clips around a still photo\u2019s moment of capture. However, most times, there\u2019s nothing of note there, and just because my hand shook a little bit, my Pixel decides to take a Motion photo. The issue is that these are large files that take up precious storage space compared to a simple still picture. To go back to the simple pic, you have to export the Motion pic to a photo then delete the original file. And you have to do it one by one. It\u2019s frustrating and inefficient.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019d love for Google Photos to add an option to batch select Motion pics and convert them to still photos, without having to browse and click one by one, and without having to manually delete the original afterward. Make it all one seamless process, and it would save us a lot of time \u2014 and space.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a stickler for straight photos and perfect angles, so whenever I have to take a slightly skewed image because of angle or distance restrictions, I try to adjust it as much as possible. Photos had a good perspective adjustment tool on mobile, scrapped it when the new photo editor rolled out, then brought it back. But it\u2019s nowhere to be found on the web version of Photos. And this is exactly the kind of tool that would make way more sense to use with a precise mouse compared to a large, grubby finger.<\/p>\n

Google Photos currently only lets you control the connectivity requirements of a backup, but not the battery requirements. You can choose whether photos get backed up on Wi-Fi or on a data network, limit the data used, block it during roaming, and disable video backups on data. That\u2019s all cool, but there\u2019s no control over the other variables of your phone\u2019s state.<\/p>\n

Crucially, I\u2019d want to be able to limit backups when my battery is low, or when my phone isn\u2019t charging. I run into this a lot when I\u2019m travelling. When I find a decent Wi-Fi network, I connect, enable my Pixel\u2019s VPN, and I suddenly see Google Photos running its backup right then and there. What if it\u2019s still morning time and I don\u2019t want to lose half my battery to backups? I just wish I had control to limit big backups to when my phone is charging \u2014 that way, I\u2019d know I wouldn\u2019t be losing battery over them.<\/p>\n

Google Photos\u2019 video editor has gotten very good recently and can do the trick in a pinch. Cropping, color adjustments, trimming, audio controls, speed variations, text additions; a lot of the basis are covered. But with everyone living their lives online and sharing Shorts and Reels, I wish Photos would embrace that level of editing, too.<\/p>\n

Adding automatic captions would be a great start, and Google definitely has the requirements to pull that off very easily. On-device Gemini could live-caption any video in your library in less than a minute, I\u2019m sure. I\u2019d also love to see the option to add an opening thumbnail or an end-credit photo, as well as mid-video stills with animations. Cutting the video into segments, zooming in in places and out in others, or merging multiple videos together would be fantastic, too.<\/p>\n

I realize this is a big ask of a photo gallery app that\u2019s supposed to be centered around organizing your library first and foremost, but maybe the Photos team can release this as an auxilliary addition or a separate app. With CapCut becoming less and less user-friendly, it would only make sense for Photos to take the baton and run with it, making the video editing application that everyone flocks to.<\/p>\n

What about you? Which Google Photos features are you looking forward to or would wish to see Google implement?<\/p>\n

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