Year in Review 2017: Google and Your Photos

Google has been innovating with new software and hardware tricks and features for photos, and - especially - using machine learning to improve image recognition, enhancement and sharing.

In 2017 Google Photos launched a number of updates that make it more fun for casual photo sharers, like the ability to recognize your cat or dog's face, easier sharing, and photo books.

And Google Camera is getting smarter. On Pixel Phones you can access the new Google Lens option, which can tell you more about the business or landmark you’re looking at, or even take actions, like add a phone number in an image to your contacts.

Comic-style Storyboard created from a recent video

While Google Photos is designed for sharing with family and friends, Google also provides cool tools and updates for Creators, the folks who go beyond simple snapshots, and who share their photos and videos publicly.

Here are my top 2017 updates:

• At Google I/O in May new sharing features were launched: 500 million people using Google Photos, and three new ways to share
• A new angle on your favorite moments with Google Clips: a tiny camera that uses machine learning to capture important moments
• Pixel Visual Core: image processing and machine learning on Pixel 2
• In July, Google introduced a new desktop Backup and Sync for Google Photos and Drive
• WordPress now lets you easily insert Google Photos images. And, of course, you can insert your photos and videos from Google Photos in your Blogger Blog posts.
• In Google Photos you can (still) easily create a Mother’s Day movie or Father’s Day movie for the special parent in your life
• The Google Photos mobile app now lets you stabilize your shaky video
• Earlier this year, Google announced that they would no longer be updating popular Nik Collection of photo editing software. But it’s been rescued! DxO bought the Nik collection from Google, and will resume development.
• Snapseed, Google’s mobile photo editing app, got a fresh user interface, new filters, presets, and editing tools like “Double Exposure” and “Face Pose”.
• There are several new experimental apps for creative image-making, augmented by machine learning:  Motion Stills for iOS and Android,Storyboard, Selfissimo!! and Scrubbies. If you feel like playing, check them out.
• And, just for fun, Google Camera on Pixels have Augmented Reality Stickers, with Stormtroopers and happy donuts.

I'm sure that in 2018 we'll see more creative and fun image creation and editing tools from Google. And hopefully some of the experimental features will be incorporated into Google Camera and Google Photos.

Top Tips and Tutorials for Google Photos and Camera

More 2017 Updates

Year in Review 2017: YouTube Creators, Partners and Live Streamers
Year in Review 2017: Google+ Comes Into Its Own
Year in Review 2017: Hangouts gets down to business

Year in Review 2017: Bloggers, AdSense Publishers, Webmasters

Image: Photo by Peggy K, all rights reserved

Updated March 2019 to remove Google+ links