The big picture: Google Photos is now the ninth product in the search giant's stable to have crossed the one billion user mark, joining Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Search, the Google Play Store and YouTube. But Google isn't content to rest on its laurels.
Google Photos, the search giant's photo sharing and storage service, has managed to attract more than one billion users in just over four years' time. Google Photos was announced during the company's annual I/O developer conference in mid-2015 as a standalone successor to the photo features built into Google+. With free, unlimited storage for images and videos up to 16-megapixels and 1080p quality, respectively, and the fact that it ships pre-installed on Android phones, it quickly attracted a substantial user base.
Two years after launch, Google revealed that its photo service had over 500 million users.
At its third annual Google for Nigeria event, the search giant unveiled Gallery Go - a lightweight version of Photos designed for Android Go, the mobile operating system tweaked for developing markets. It is meant for people who don't have a reliable Internet connection, enabling many of the best features of Photos, even when offline. Best yet, it requires just 10MB of space on your mobile device.
Anil Sabharwal, the Google VP who led the team that created Google Photos, told Fast Company that Gallery Go is how they think about the next billion users.
Gallery Go is available from today for devices running Android 8.1 Oreo or higher.
Masthead credit: Google Photos app by BigTunaOnline