Aside from the Best of 2021 that they have started rolling out to selected users, Google Photos has released an update that brings some new features to help you celebrate the year that was or the end of the year, depending on how you feel about 2021. This includes a new People & Pets widget following the previously released Memories widget and an update to the Cinematic mode for photos. Nest Hub users will also now be able to view Memories from the app on their smart display.
The new People & Pets widget lets you see the photos of the, well, people and pets that you want to see on your home screen. You can open the widget picker on your phone, look for the People & Pets widget and drag it to the home screen. It will bring you to the Google Photos app so you can choose which of the people and pets you want to be displayed. You can choose up to 10 and it will show you both existing and newly added photos to display.
Last year, Photos launched a feature called Cinematic photos which gives you a 3D video of a certain image that is pretty dramatic. Google is now improving this feature by letting machine learning fill in parts of the background behind the subject so the virtual camera can move freely to find the best framing and make the subject stand out. The Memories feature is also now more widely available for Nest Hub users. Just go to the Your Day tab to see them in a slideshow.
Photos also started bringing event Memories recently so you can look back at moments like New Year’s Eve, Halloween, birthdays, graduations, etc. Users can rename or remove those Memories collections from the photo grid. And Google also reminds Photos users that the app has controls to hide photos of certain people, pets, or time periods if you don’t want to see them on your Memories or Best of collections.
These features are rolling out to Google Photos on Android although it seems to be a server-side update. You should also watch out for the Best of 2021 collection if you want to see your year in review, even if it’s random and not chronological.
