Google Pictures cloud content material will quickly seem in Android’s Photograph Picker, lastly

One of many key options of final yr’s Android 13 launch was the brand new system Photograph Picker. The Photograph Picker allows you to select precisely which media information to share with an app. In distinction, the customized media pickers that many apps use both get entry to all or none of your pictures and movies. It might be nice if extra builders adopted Android’s Photograph Picker because it’s extra personal by design, however there’s an excellent motive that many haven’t: It’s nonetheless lacking primary options like letting you choose media information saved within the cloud. That would change quickly, although, since we’re lastly seeing indicators that cloud content material from apps like Google Pictures will seem in Android’s Photograph Picker.

In the event you’re not that acquainted with Android’s Photograph Picker, I don’t blame you, since there aren’t plenty of apps on the market that put it to use proper now. The Photograph Picker is accessible natively on all gadgets working Android 11 and newer because it’s a part of an updatable Challenge Mainline module, however it’s additionally accessible on gadgets working Android variations way back to Android 4.4 due to a backported model offered by Google Play Providers. Right here’s what the Photograph Picker presently appears to be like like should you have been to seek out an app that invokes it:

What Android’s Photograph Picker appears to be like like with out cloud media help

As you may see, the Photograph Picker has two tabs: “Pictures” and “Albums”. The “Pictures” tab reveals you all of your pictures, movies, or each in reverse chronological order. The “Albums” tab reveals you media gadgets from the Digicam, Movies, Screenshots, Downloads, and Favorites albums in your machine. In the event you retailer all of your media information regionally in your machine, then the Photograph Picker will present each media file you can probably wish to share. Nevertheless, should you retailer most of your pictures and movies on Google Pictures, then Android’s Photograph Picker might be lacking plenty of gadgets.

Google knew this is able to be an issue for a lot of customers, which is why they designed Android’s Photograph Picker to help choosing gadgets from cloud media suppliers from the get-go. Cloud media suppliers don’t robotically seem in Android’s Photograph Picker, although; they should implement an API that provides apps read-only entry to media information saved within the cloud. That is much like how the older system file picker works with cloud media suppliers, however since that have has existed for years now, many apps have had time to combine with it.

Android’s system file picker, which the Photograph Picker supplants for choosing media information, has a extra dated UI however provides broader entry to information from native and cloud storage suppliers. It may be invoked immediately or not directly (leftmost picture, tapping the “browse” button).

The identical can’t be stated for the brand new Photograph Picker, which nonetheless hasn’t had a single cloud media supplier built-in with it. That is although again at I/O 2022, a yr and a half in the past, Google stated that cloud media suppliers like Google Pictures might be supported in an upcoming replace. That is lastly coming to fruition quickly, although, since current variations of the Google Pictures app have added full help for Android’s Photograph Picker.

After activating this function, a brand new “Cloud media app” web page seems underneath Settings > Apps. Right here, we have been in a position to activate Google Pictures as a cloud media supplier for Android’s Photograph Picker. Enabling this function additionally opened up a brand new “Google Pictures entry” choice within the settings web page for the Google Pictures app. This selection results in an in-app “Photograph picker” web page that permits you to determine whether or not to grant the Photograph Picker entry to the pictures and movies you’ve saved on Google Pictures.

The varied methods you may set Google Pictures because the cloud media supplier for Android’s Photograph Picker.

With Google Pictures now set because the cloud media supplier, the Photograph Picker is ready to pull within the pictures and movies I backed as much as the cloud. This tremendously expands the variety of media information I can share with an app, as proven under.

A take a look at Android’s Photograph Picker with cloud media help.

Even with this growth, nonetheless, the Photograph Picker nonetheless has some limitations. First, the “Albums” tab nonetheless doesn’t present native albums created by apps like Snapseed, so that you’ll want to seek out media information saved in these albums by scrolling by way of the “Pictures” tab. Second, cloud media gadgets aren’t proven when the Photograph Picker is invoked by way of the permissions dialog, which is a part of a brand new function launched in Android 14 that lets customers grant apps partial entry to pictures and movies. Meaning cloud media gadgets are solely when the Photograph Picker is invoked by an app. Thankfully, this is applicable even when an app not directly invokes the Photograph Picker, as is the case in apps like Google Chat and Google Hold following a current Google Play System Replace.

Hopefully, Google rolls out this function quickly to customers for the reason that lack of cloud media help within the Photograph Picker is partly why many builders aren’t using it of their apps but. After Google Pictures integrates with the Photograph Picker, hopefully, different cloud media suppliers like Microsoft OneDrive observe swimsuit.