Rumors about Google spinning Photos off from Google+ and launching it as a standalone app have been swirling for a while now, with recent reports suggesting that the service could debut at I/O. Now a new leak seems to back up the claims of an upcoming launch and also gives us a peek at the app itself.
The folks at Android Police have managed to take a peek at Google’s separate Photos app for Android. Included in the app is face-matching, search, automatic photo organization, and sharing. You can also use the app to back up and sync your photos between devices. The app itself fits in with Google’s new Material Design language, complete with a slide-out menu and translucent status bar.
Once you’re inside the app, you can view photos sorted by day, month, or a “comfortable view” that’ll place your shots in a staggered grid. Once you find some photos that you’d like to share, you can batch select them by dragging your finger across the images. The editing UI has been refreshed and includes a cropping tool that’ll snap to aspect ratios as you select them. Finally, there’s an Assistant tool that’ll automatically create stories and animations as well as help you to make your own movies, albums, collages, and animations.
While nothing is official until Google says it is, this leaked app looks like it’ll be right at home among Google’s other Lollipop-ified apps. It also appears to add a handful of nice little features, and I’m sure that there’ll be quite a few folks happy to see Photos broken out of Google+ and made its own separate app, which will hopefully make using Photos on your Android device a more straightforward experience. Google I/O is happening May 28 and 29, and it’s expected that this new Photos service will debut there. Until then, you can hit up the Android Police link below to view more screenshots of this leaked app.
