Summary
- New Google Photos features include a redesigned Memories tab and an upcoming storage saver option for photos and videos.
- The app may soon allow users to adjust auto-deletion settings for images in the Bin, offering more control.
- Users may get to choose from pre-set auto-delete intervals, similar to disappearing messages on WhatsApp.
Google Photos is one of many pre-installed Google apps on most Android phones, and it has been abuzz with new features recently. The app’s developers have redesigned the Memories tab and are now working on efficient storage of all your photos and videos with features like storage saver coming to the mobile app. The latest beta version also reveals another potential addition along similar lines — support for quicker auto-deletion of images from the Bin.
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When you delete images in Google Photos, the app moves them to a bin instead of permanently erasing them from your device’s storage — a nice touch in case you have second thoughts after hitting Delete, or accidentally selected an image you wanted to retain. Photos automatically erases images that have been in the bin for longer than 60 days, but you can also force-delete them manually. Meanwhile, items that aren’t backed up to Google Drive are cleared within 30 days.
Quicker automatic trash clearance could benefit users
<string name=”photos_trash_ui_empty_state_caption_configurable”>
count, plural, =1Items in the trash are deleted after # day otherItems in the trash are deleted after # days
After performing a teardown on the recent Google Photos v6.79.0.624777117 beta, PiunikaWeb found new strings of code suggesting users could soon get an option to change the retainer period from the default 60 days. The code string previously mentioned the 60-day limit explicitly, but now features a “#” placeholder for a variable defined by other elements of code. Google has also appended the “configurable” tag at the end of the new string, suggesting users will have some control over the parameter.
Although a user-configurable retention period sounds like a fine idea for budget Android phones running low on storage, a fair degree of ambiguity remains. For instance, the code doesn’t say if the 30-day retainer period for images that aren’t synced with the cloud would change. Moreover, the variable placeholder doesn’t reveal if users could set retention durations longer than 60 days, even though that might be counterintuitive.
We believe Google will allow choosing from pre-set auto-delete intervals, much like the disappearing message timer on WhatsApp, which automatically deletes messages in the conversation after a day, seven days, or 90 days. However, more details and the final implementation will only surface when Google commences beta testing with a subsequent app update.
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