If you were looking for an alternative to Google Photos and you’re using a smartphone running on the MIUI Android skins, the Xiaomi Gallery app is a great option. It is able to compete with the other cloud photo storage apps out there and may even be better than some. The latest update brings even more improvements and new features that will make organizing and sharing your media easier and more convenient. The new features include the ability to add watermarks and an easier way to search for photos that you’ve uploaded.
XDA Developers shares the update to the Xiaomi Gallery app that makes it more robust and easier to manage and organize. Probably the most notable new feature is something that Google Photos doesn’t have: the ability to add watermarks to protect your photos and sensitive or important documents. To add the protective watermark figure, open the photo or document that you want to digitally protect, tap the “More” button and you’ll see the “Protective watermark” option in the menu.
The app also now has a media type search tool so you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for more easily. Since the update isn’t live yet, we’re not seeing how this actually works but if they’re able to improve on Google Photos’ search functionality, then this is another bonus. The changelog also mentions that if you’re viewing the photos in the Map view, you’ll be able to see the photos taken nearby when you tap on one of the photos on the map.
The photo list layout is also getting some improvements to give you better “viewing efficiency”. You will be able to pinch to zoom images and videos, in case you need to take a closer look at the display without having to open the item. Of course the changelog also mentions the usual bug fixes and improvements that we don’t really understand and feel but they’re there and they are much needed to improve an app every update.
Xiaomi hasn’t actually started rolling out the update to its users. So if you can’t wait for the official rollout, you can download from the APKMirror and sideload it to a Redmi or Mi phone running on Android 8 and above.
