By using the Google Photos app, you can free up space on your iPhone or Android phone by saving photos and videos in the app. Google Photos can also be accessed on a computer by visiting photos.google.com. We understand that there are other ways to save photos, such as on a hard drive. While physical hard drives can fail or become corrupted, Google Photos offers more safety for your memories. With Google Photos, you can save up to 15GB of photos and videos for free. However, it’s important to note that every Google account comes with 15GB of free storage. That 15GB is shared across Google Photos, Google Drive, and Gmail. So, if you also use Google Drive and Gmail, be mindful that items in those two places can take up your free Google storage as well.
Extra Benefits of Using Google Photos
Using Google Photos is a great way to free up storage on your phone. Once your photos or videos have been uploaded and saved to Google Photos, they can be deleted off your phone. This will leave you with more space for other things on your phone. By savings photos and videos, you can access your photos and videos from the Google Photos app or on the computer. Google Photos offers many editing, search tools, and display features as well. It will automatically arrange your uploaded pictures by location and date taken. Through advanced image recognition and Google’s large database of information, it can recognize the content of your photos quite easily. Search your photos for anything such as people, places, events, and more. Google’s auto-tagging of images is pretty accurate, so you can be specific with what you search, such as weddings, holidays, skylines, statues, etc. Geo-tagging makes it easy to find photos from a vacation destination all at once as well. Once you start using it, we think you’ll really like it.
How to Upload and Save Photos and Videos to Google Photos
You can set your photos and videos to upload and save automatically, or you can choose to do it manually.
Saving Automatically
With the “back up & sync” setting turned on, the photos and videos taken on your phone will automatically upload into Google Photos. You don’t have to do anything yourself. For simplicity’s sake, we recommend this option.
To turn the back up & sync setting on or off:
- Open the Google Photos app
- Choose “Google Photos settings”
- See the “Back up & sync” option
Saving Manually
On the other hand, there are two different ways to manually upload and save photos and videos to Google Photos. You can upload photos and videos by creating an album or just simply upload them without placing them into an album.
Create a Photo Album:
- Open the Google Photos app
- Tap and hold a photo until you see it has a blue checkmark on it
- Select other photos you want in the album
- Tap “+ Add to” and select “Album”
- Add a title to your new album
- Tap the blue checkmark in the corner when you are done
Add Photos and Videos Without Placing Them into an Album:
- Open the Google Photos app
- Tap on the photo you want to upload to Google Photos
- At the top, you will see a cloud icon with an arrow in it. Tap on it
- Your photo or video will upload and save to Google Photos
Accessing Your Memories in Google Photos
From Your Phone Using the Google Photos App
Knowing which photos and videos from your phone are saved in Google Photos can be tricky if you are not paying attention. When opening the Google Photos app, you are automatically taken to the Photos section. Here, you will see all the photos and videos on your phone. However, the photos and videos that are saved in Google Photos will have a cloud icon with a checkmark on it in the bottom right corner to indicate it’s saved. Photos and videos on your phone that are not saved to Google Photos will not show the icon in the bottom right. You can also tap on “Library” to see your photo albums. Please note that while in Library on the app, you will not see photos and videos that have been saved and not put into an album. You will see photos and videos that are not in an album under the “Photos” section.
From a Computer
As mentioned earlier, you can also access photos and videos saved in Google Photos from a computer instead of the app on a smartphone. To do this, follow the steps below:
- On the computer, go to photos.google.com
- Sign into your Google account if you are not already logged in
- It will automatically take you to the “Photos” section where you will see your photos and videos that are saved to Google Photos
- Additionally, you can choose “Albums” in the menu on the left to see your photo albums
It’s Simple to Share Photos & Videos
You can share the images and videos you have saved with others even if they don’t have or use Google Photos. Below are instructions for sharing photos and videos with other people. You can share to anyone with a Google account if they’re in your contacts or by searching their email address or phone number. If the person you’re sharing with does not have a Google account, you can create a link to share with them. Insider tip, this is a great way to share pictures with family members with digital picture frames such as the Google Nest.
Sharing from the Google Photos App on a Smartphone:
- Open the Google Photos app
- Select a photo, album, or video
- Tap the share icon:
(on Android) or 
(on iPhone) - Next, choose who to share with under “Send in Google Photos”
- To share with one person, tap on their name or search for their name, email address, or phone number
- Choose multiple people to share with more than one person
- To create a link to share with someone to send via text message or another app, tap on “Share to apps” (on Android) or “Share to…” (on iPhone), and choose “Create link”
- Then, send your photos, videos, or link
Sharing on a Computer:
- On the computer, go to photos.google.com
- Sign into your Google account if you are not already logged in
- Put your mouse on a photo or video to hover on it. Then click on the checkmark that appears in the top left corner of the photo or video to select it
- Click the share icon in the top right corner
- Next, choose who to share with under “Send in Google Photos”
- To share with one person, click on their name or search for their name, email address, or phone number
- If you want to share with multiple people, click “New group” and select those people
- To create a link to share with someone, click “Create link”. Then click on the blue “Create link” button. The link will generate, and you will be able to click on the “Copy” button
Create a Shared Album
You can also create a shared album. By creating a shared album, the people you share the album with can gain access to the entire album.
How to Create a Shared Album:
- Open the Google Photos app
- Tap and hold a photo until you see it has a blue checkmark on it
- Select other photos you want in your shared album
- Tap “+ Add to”
- Choose “Shared album”
- Add a title to your album
- Tap “Share”
- Select who to share your album with
- To share with one person, click on their name or search for their name, email address, or phone number
- To share with multiple people, click “New group” and select those people
- Click “Create link” to create a link to share with someone. Then click on the blue “Create link” button. The link will generate, and you will be able to click on the “Copy” button
At Twigby, we have thoroughly reviewed and vetted this tool. Google Photos is a great tool to help keep your memories safe and in one place while being able to delete pictures and videos that are taking up too much space on your phone. Not only is it great for offloading pictures and videos that are taking up too much room on your phone, it makes sharing large amounts of pictures and videos with friends and family easy. With unique editing and search features, it lets you make the most of your memories. To safely upload and save your life’s memories to Google Photos, simply download the app from the Google Play Store for Android or from the App Store for iPhone.