Google Photos, along with many other Google apps, is in the list of the 10 billion downloads club on the Google Play Store. This is no small feat and should not only be linked to the fact that it’s preinstalled on almost all Android phones. Google Photos is popular because it delivers on what it promises to do, making it harder for users to find a true replacement.
This doesn’t mean Google Photos is perfect. It currently lacks many handy features that some of its rivals offer. On top of that, some features in Google Photos don’t always do everything right, forcing users to look for an alternative way. For example, the sharing capability in Google Photos isn’t the best one out there, because of a lack of the option to copy an image from the app.
However, Google is finally addressing this problem by introducing a “Copy” button in Google Photos’ share sheet, according to the latest findings by an APK teardown of version 7.63.0.867680147 of the app conducted by Android Authority.
What problems will a copy option in Google Photos’ share sheet solve?
As things stand right now, when you browse your photos and videos in Google Photos, you can long-press on them and share them with anyone using the “Share” option, which brings up the share sheet, containing apps and people you can share items with. However, whenever you share something this way, it’ll start a new message and can’t be used as a direct reply to a message you received sometime back.
If you use WhatsApp or any other messenger, you need to open the chat, select the message, and then choose the photo or video from the gallery. With the new “Copy” option, you’ll be able to just copy the image from the share sheet to your clipboard and paste it wherever you want.
The APK teardown doesn’t make it clear whether the new “Copy” option in Google Photos’ share sheet will appear for photos and videos that aren’t locally stored. If it becomes available for items that are stored in the cloud in Google Photos, Android will no longer have to download a copy of them to send them to someone else. To avoid all of this, all you’ll have to do is tap the copy button and share it with whoever you want.
In addition to this new option to copy photos and videos, Android Authority has also spotted a Material 3 Expressive makeover for more parts of the app. It also spotted some minor UI changes in the Albums and Updates screen of the Google Photos app.
However, none of this has been officially confirmed to be coming to Google Photos, but since they have emerged in an APK teardown, they’ll likely be added to Google Photos in future app updates, though it’s hard to guess when they might be available for users.
