Google Photos media could soon be accessible via Android’s new Photo Picker،
Android 13's Photo Switcher was a breath of fresh air for privacy-conscious users. Unlike the all-or-nothing access of app-specific switchers, it grants granular control over the photos and videos you share. But her usefulness was limited: your local library was all she knew. However, there is good news on the horizon, as cloud media providers like Google Photos are finally gearing up to join the party.
Google Photos is set up as a cloud media provider for Android's photo picker | Source – Android Authority
This feature was announced during Google I/O 2022 and has since been recently added to apps like Google Keep, Google Chat, and Google Messages on devices running Android 11 with the November 2023 Google Play System Update However, adoption outside of Google's own apps requires app developers to implement the API, and adoption has been slow.
Now, with the addition of Google Photos and hopefully the wider rollout of this feature, developers might now be encouraged to embrace the Photo Picker, giving users unprecedented control over their shared memories. Hopefully, with Google Photos leading the way, other cloud providers like Microsoft OneDrive will follow, creating a truly universal, privacy-friendly sharing experience on Android.
However, these are only minor setbacks in a major step forward. The hope is that other cloud providers will see the benefit of using the photo picker and begin asking their app developers to implement the necessary changes to enable this feature for them. Google has already taken the first step to achieve this.