If you like taking a trip down a virtual memory lane with your Google Photos, having a widget to easily access those photos will come in handy. They are now rolling out the Your Memories widget to more devices, particularly Android 12 and those running on older Android OS. It is part of the version 5.53 update so it should be available for more users now. This is part of Google’s “renewed focus” on creating better homescreen widgets for their apps.
9 to 5 Google shares that once your Photos app is updated to the latest version, you just have to long-press on the app icon or the browsing widgets pane on your launcher. You’ll see “Your Memories” show up in the options on a 2×2 size but which can be expanded to full screen with rounded edges. The description says “Rediscover moments from Google Photos” and should show media taken during the same time period from years past.
You’ll see the date when the photo was taken on the bottom edge for individual photos but for collections, the titles seem to be left-aligned. Once you open the Google Photos app from the widget, it will cycle to the next image although the update interval doesn’t seem to be consistent right now. The widget is simple enough that all it does is showcase your photos on your homescreen from years ago so there’s a certain nostalgic feeling there.
The widget UI element was actually pioneered by Google years ago but now they’re getting back to it by revamping some of the widgets from its first-party apps. This widget for Your Memories on Google Photos is one of the first that is being relaunched to a wider audience and it’s a pretty good start, or rather, restart. Hopefully they bring more widgets like this to other commonly used Google apps like Gmail, Chrome, etc.
Update your Google Photos app to the latest version to see the Your Memories widget show up. It seems to be available for devices running on Android 10, 11, and 12.
