Google Photos is reshaping the user experience by making a significant innovation. Google, which updated the “Library” tab to “Collections” in August, now offers a new flow called “Updates” instead of the “Sharing” tab. This new feature aims to make photo sharing habits more effective. The notification bell icon, which is also used in Google’s other popular applications, has been added to Google Photos, allowing users to more easily access their sharing and chat history.
In previous versions, users could access the “Sharing” tab in the main menu of Google Photos from an icon between the profile avatar and the “plus” menu. This tab offered quick access options such as “Create a shared album” and “Share with partner”, while at the bottom it listed various contents such as albums, memories and chats. However, this arrangement was complex and messy according to many users. Taking this feedback into consideration, Google developed the “Updates” tab that aggregates all sharing activity and chat updates into a single stream.
The notification bell icon added to the “Updates” flow allows users to more easily follow the latest sharing activities within the application. Now, users can quickly browse the latest sharing updates, new chats and shared links by clicking the bell icon in the application bar. The new menu displays sharing activities in an orderly manner and offers a simpler interface to reduce the use of the chat feature.
The “Updates” tab of Google Photos also adapts to a design language used in other Google applications and to which users are accustomed. This bell icon, which is also found in applications such as Google Home, YouTube and Play Store, allows users to access all their notifications from a central area. In this way, Google Photos users have the opportunity to manage their shares and chat history from a single point within the application.
The new feature is currently only available in the Google Photos Android app.
Google’s “Updates” tab is currently only available on Android devices. Although this feature has not yet been activated for iOS users, Google is expected to release the update on this platform soon. Although the company has not made any statement about iOS support, it can usually take a few weeks to activate the features on both platforms simultaneously.