Google has made improvements to the Android Photo Picker, the browsable user interface that lets you choose photos and videos from the device"s media library while using apps. The company announced that it"s adding support for cloud media apps in the photo picker.
In a blog post, Google said:
Our photo picker has always been the gateway to your local media library, providing a secure, date-sorted interface for users to grant apps access to selected images and videos. But now, we"re taking it a step further by integrating cloud photos from your chosen cloud media app directly into the photo picker experience.
Android photo picker lets you browse the photo gallery and grant access to specific items to an app. In other words, it lets developers add a photo selection feature to their apps without having to create an in-house picker from scratch and saves them the effort of maintaining complex logic to handle permissions.
The new feature is currently rolling out with the February Google System Update to devices running Android 12 and later. It"s supported on the Google Photos app and its "APIs are open to any cloud media app that qualifies for our pilot program," Google said.
Android photo picker will attempt to auto-select the cloud media apps for you when it gets supported. But you can change the settings at any time to remove integration for a cloud media app. Google explained that the feature unifies the media library by merging your local media and cloud photos in the photo picker.
The company said that the feature is designed to eliminate "the need to switch between apps." The photos and videos you have marked as "favorites" in the cloud media app will show up in the albums tabs in the photo picker. Moreover, the albums tab will also populate albums you have created in the cloud storage app.