With how many megapixels the best Android phones have on their main camera sensors, it’s no surprise that so many users rely on cloud storage to manage their photo library. A single 200 MP image can take up tens of megabytes of space, which can add up quickly if you take a lot of photos. Cloud media providers like Google Photos provide a convenient way to back up your photo library, are available on multiple platforms, and offer tons of great photo management and editing features.
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However, Google Photos in particular still lacks some basic features like the ability to mirror an image. It also won’t get some of the new AI editing features OEMs are adding to their gallery apps. Because of this, some users are forced to choose between a single gallery app and missing out on some features, or using two gallery apps to manage and edit their photo library. But if you own a recent device from OnePlus, OPPO, Realme or Xiaomi, you may no longer have to choose between the Stock Gallery app and Google Photos.
OxygenOS and ColorOS get new Google Photos integration
With the release of OxygenOS 14/ColorOS 14 based on Android 14, the stock gallery app on OnePlus, OPPO and Realme devices (simply called “Photos”) now has full integration with Google Photos. If you open the OOS/COS Photos app and then go to settings, you’ll see a Backup to Google Photos the page where a Backup folding apartment. Tapping this takes you to the Google Photos app, which asks if you want to give OOS/COS Photos access to Google Photos. This not only allows you to back up your photos and videos to Google Photos, which you can already do by opening the main Google Photos app, but also allows you to display your the entire Google Photos library in the OOS/COS Photos application.
Google Photos integration in Stock Gallery app in OxygenOS 14/ColorOS 14 on OnePlus, OPPO and Realme devices.
You can seamlessly view photos and videos backed up to Google Photos from the OOS/COS Photos app. Any photos hosted on Google Photos that you open in the OOS/COS Photos app are automatically saved locally in a folder called “Restored”, while any video you open is transferred to the device, but can be saved locally by tapping the download button in the toolbar. Any changes you make are also seamlessly synced back to Google Photos, so you don’t have to worry about seeing items that aren’t synced in Google Photos after editing a photo in the OOS/COS Photos app. Unfortunately, albums don’t sync between the two, so albums you create in the standard OOS/COS Photos app won’t appear in the Google Photos app and vice versa.
Xiaomi’s Gallery app gets full two-way sync
By the way, this integration with Google Photos also works exactly the same way in the Stock Gallery app on Xiaomi devices. The Xiaomi Gallery app supports backing up photos and videos to Google Photos since the end of 2022, when the company decided to shut down its own cloud photo backup service. However, the app didn’t support full, two-way syncing with Google Photos at the time.
Fast forward to the global launch of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra at MWC last month, and Xiaomi has announced that it will be rolling out an update to the Gallery app that adds full integration with Google Photos. This update started rolling out this month and brings the Gallery app to version 3.6.2.10-global. On my Xiaomi 13T Pro, I was able to go into the Gallery app settings and enable Google Photos integration by tapping the caption shown below. After that, my entire Google Photos library appeared in the Gallery app.
Integration of Google Photos into the Stock Gallery application on Xiaomi devices.
According to the support page, currently only Xiaomi, OPPO, OnePlus and Realme devices offer gallery apps that can access Google Photos. The support page also mentions a bunch of other caveats about the feature, like how changes made on the Google Photos website may not sync with the original device, or how duplicates may appear in the Stock Gallery app if there are multiple copies on the device. Given these caveats, it makes sense that Google would allow you to turn off this integration at any time. To do this, you just need to go to the settings in Google Photos, tap Apps and devicesand then tap Access to Google Photos at the bottom to open a page where you can revoke access.
Control which apps can access your Google Photos library.
While it’s nice that the gallery app on OnePlus, OPPO, Realme, and Xiaomi devices offers such tight integration with Google Photos, it’s a shame these caveats exist. However, for the average user who mainly views, edits and shares photos directly from their smartphone, this integration can eliminate the need to frequently switch between two different gallery apps.