As AI and facial recognition screams into the limelight of today’s technology…
…I’m still screaming “What are we doing?! We’ve seen how these movies end! Why are we still trying to make this?!”
But I bet in those movies the time before the Terminators was pretty cool. Robots that could do cool stuff for you and help you live a pretty sweet life. I bet Google Photos is something that would have existed in the prequel to Terminator.
Terminator 5: Have You Seen This Boy?
…because he’s in 143 of your photos…
In all seriousness, Google Photos is a really great tool for you to use if you’re a social media manager and trying to start a collaborative team. If you have Gmail, you have access to this app (and it’s free) and it will change your life. Let me tell you why Google Photos is amazing and how you can use it for your social media team, even if you’re a lone Terminator.
The Upload Limits of Google Photos
If you are happy with videos limited to 1080p resolution (HD) and photos with a file size of 16M each or less, you will receive unlimited space. Yes, I said unlimited. Bye photos taking up all but 1.8G of my hard drive.
If you want to upload the full resolution of your photos (a true backup), then that will count against your Google Drive space. Of course, you can purchase more and more space as you need it, but did you hear the part about where I said the other was free?
The Accessibility of Google Photos
If you have a team that needs to send you photos, it’s really easy to create a folder in Photos and share that with your photographers, who can then upload to their heart’s desire the millions of photos they have of your worship team on stage from the past year. Come on, you know they like that one.
Not only can your photographers get to the photos easily, but so can you! If you are out and about with just your phone, but armed with Instagram, InShot, Google Photos, 3 chords, and the Truth, you can access your Hi-Res photos, create a great post in InShot or Instagram, and post to your platforms.
How many times have you said, “Whoops! I meant to post about that but oh no, all my good photos I would normally make that post from are back at my office or at home on my laptop and I can’t get to them!” Never say that again.
The AI of Google Photos
So, let’s connect the dots to the whole Terminator thing I was doing in the beginning. Google Photos can automatically scan all your photos for faces, group the similar faces together, and create albums based on that person using facial recognition.
Need a photo of your pastor for something? Click his/her face and Google Photos will show you all the photos you have of that face. Want a picture of a faithful volunteer? If there are more than 3 or 4 photos of that person in your collection, Google will find it and make an album.
Or you could try to create tags yourself for all 10k of your photos so you can easily find what you’re looking for…but who has 10 years to spare, am I right?
The Syncing of Google Photos
The last little trick is for those who don’t want to limit the file size but also want access to hi-res photos. People like you. People like me. Because this is what I do. I store my full resolution photos on our public server and sync the folder with Photos.
You have to download a little desktop app called Google Backup and Sync. That link will run you through how to set it up and where to get it. Here’s how it works…
You select a folder to sync with Google Photos on your hard drive or network and when it is available and an internet connection is present (like Dropbox) it will upload that unlimited file size version of your jpgs or pngs to Google Photos, while your RAW files (which it cannot convert or upload) and full resolution jpgs will remain on your hard drive.
So it’s like getting both worlds. You’ll need those full-size, hi-res photos for print, but you’ll have access to nice photos at a decent resolution for social. Win-win-win!
So Get It Before the T-100 Comes Back
This is by far one of the easiest ways to store and access and share hi quality photos without a steep price I’ve ever seen. If you’re managing social media or a photography team, this app is a must-have, even if you don’t use Gmail.
Submit to the Google. They will soon become self-aware. No fate.