Google launches Gallery Go

Gallery Go by Google Photos is a new Android application by Google designed as an alternative to Google Photos. The application has been launched worldwide by Google but it is feature-restricted in some regions.

Designed to be lightweight, Gallery Go by Google Photos follows other “Go” applications such as YouTube Go, Google Search Go or Google Maps Go which Google launched in recent years.

The applications are designed for new mobile users and markets favoring lower-end devices, and are part of Google’s plan to reach even more users.

The application requires Android 8.1 or higher but that is the only requirement. Anyone may download Gallery Go by Google Photos to their Android device if they meet the requirement. The app has a size of 10 Megabytes which is small when you compare it Google Photos which has a size of 42 Megabytes currently.

One of the appeals of Gallery Go by Google Photos is that it is designed for offline use. The gallery application is not as feature-rich as Google Photos but it comes with a handful of extras that may make it interesting. It can be used to view and manage photos, and to edit them as well. The app supports viewing, copying and transferring photos from and to SD cards as well.

The application displays categories at the top and below that a chronological view of images. Categories are feature limited in certain regions but Google fails to mention why that is the case.

Gallery Go by Google Photos may sort photos into categories such as Selfies, People or Nature automatically using machine learning. Google calls the restricted feature face grouping in the description.

Tap on any group to display its photos and tap on any individual photo to view it in full and display editing options. You may share or delete the image, use the built-in auto enhancing functionality, or tap on edit to display further editing options. These are basic and allow users to apply filters, and to rotate or crop images.

Videos support sharing, editing, and deleting. The edit options are limited to selecting part of the video to save it to the device.

Other features include switching to a folder view mode to manage Camera photos, screenshots, or WhatsApp images.

Galary Go vs Google Photos

Google has managed to cram a lot of the Google Photos experience into Gallery Go, there are a few key features you won’t find in the new app.

First and foremost, Gallery Go is only used for photos that are found locally on your device. Unlike Google Photos, it doesn’t show files that are saved in the cloud on your Google account.

While Gallery Go can automatically organise photos into certain categories, it’s missing Google Photos’ search bar. With the search bar in Google Photos, you can quickly search for photos using people’s names, the location where a picture was taken, pet types, etc.

In Gallery Go, you’re at the mercy of Google’s automatic organisation with no way to search for a specific type of picture.

Also missing from Gallery Go are some of Google Photos’ editing tools. While Gallery Go does have filters and tools for cropping/rotating, you won’t find manual sliders for things like exposure, highlights, saturation, warmth, etc.

Finally, there is no Chromecast integration, no Google Lens, no archive folder and no support for Google Photo Books.