If you take pictures of receipts, you'll like the Crop Document feature in Google Photos

This is a relatively new feature in Google Photos (Oct 2018), and it's only available on the Android version. If you took a photo of a receipt, a business card, or a full page document, it looks better if you crop the background out, and adjust the skew of the photo.

1. Open the photo and tap the edit button 
2. Now tap the last button on the right, the 9-dot grid
3. You should see "Crop Document" at the top, tap that
4. Try tapping the "Auto" button at the bottom, it should crop to the edges of the document
5. If auto didn't do enough, you can drag any of the 4 corners into position manually
6. Tap Done, then Save

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Chris Guld is President and Teacher-in-Chief at GeeksOnTour.com. She has been in computer training and support since 1983. She is now a Product Expert for the Google Photos Forum, owner of the LearnGooglePhotos.com blog, and author of Mrs. Geek's Guide to Google Photos. 
She loves to teach! If you want to learn, you’ve come to the right place.

Google Photos can capture one frame from a live or motion photo

If you use the iPhone feature called Live photos or the Android motion photo, you know that you get a few seconds of video along with your photo. Now Google Photos allows you to see that video portion frame by frame and pick the best frame to be a new still photo.

Instead of taking burst shots of your grandson playing basketball, you can just take one shot - a motion shot - then pick the frame where the ball goes through the hoop!

This is great for photos of people where they may be caught blinking, and their eyes closed. You can find a frame from the video portion where all eyes are open.

This video starts by showing you how to take a live photo in iOS or motion photo in Samsung, then shows how to pick the desired frame:

Google Photos movie maker needs more features

I love the Google Photos movie maker, but it is missing some vital features.

What is Google Photos Movie Maker?

 If you take lots of photos and videos, you need better ways of combining, presenting and sharing them. Have you tried the movie feature in Google Photos? There is no easier way of making a movie out of your photos and video clips than using Google Photos Movie Maker capabilities. Sometimes Google Photos even makes a movie for you and gives it to you in the For You section. No work at all! Even when you make the movie yourself, it is drop-dead easy. On your mobile device, select the photos and videos you want included, tap the + button in upper right and choose movie, then you can save, or make a few edits.
Here's a video to show you how:

Google Photos and Manual Face-tagging

People love the fact that Google Photos groups photos together by faces in the People section. And, they hate it when it doesn't get the people right. Now you can fix this with the Edit People option.

This new feature is available on all 3 platforms: computer/web, Android, and iOS.

Every picture has an info panel. On the computer/web version you click the i for info and it opens up the panel to the right. On mobile, you just swipe up on the picture to reveal the info panel. 

One section of the info panel is the People or Pets that are found in the photo. In this photo it notice 2 people but not the third.

They moved it! Using Google Photos and choosing to edit in Snapseed is still there.

Using Snapseed to edit photos

Snapseed is my favorite way to edit photos on my phone. It's a free app from Google that you need to download and install on your phone. It's available for both iOS and Android. Once it's installed, you can use it with any photo in Google Photos.

The way to access it from Google Photos has recently changed, here's how to get there now.

On iPhone, swipe up on the photo and you'll see "Open in Snapseed" as an option below the photo

On Android, open the photo, tap the edit button, tap the 9-dot grid, then you'll see Snapseed as an option.

How to get to Snapseed from Google Photos on Android

GeeksOnTour.com has a Learning Guide for Snapseed for members. Snapseed: Getting started with photo editing
Coming soon - a new course on Snapseed.

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Chris Guld is President and Teacher-in-Chief at GeeksOnTour.com. She has been in computer training and support since 1983. She is now a Product Expert for the Google Photos Forum, owner of the LearnGooglePhotos.com blog, and author of Mrs. Geek's Guide to Google Photos. 
She loves to teach! If you want to learn, you’ve come to the right place.

Using Google Photos you can now share photos with a conversation just like texting

Direct Sharing

Have you ever shared a picture using Google Photos and the recipient says they never got it? Did they tell you to send it in a text message instead because they like how a text message keeps a running conversation along with the pictures?

If so, you'll love this new feature in Google Photos - it makes sharing any photo(s) from Google Photos act just like text messaging. It's rolling out now on iOS, Android and Web! 

• Select your photo(s)
• Tap the share button or 
• Find your friend's icon in your contact list and select them (or you can create a group)
• Type a message (optional)
• Tap Send
• You should see a scrolling conversation with your photos and your text as well as any responses from your recipient. It looks just like a text message. If you don't see this, then your device has not yet received the feature.

The first time you send a photo to a person, that person will receive an email notification as well as a push notification (pop up on your screen) from Google Photos. After the first time, they will only receive the push notification. 

Only works with Google Photos users

You can use this method to share photos with someone not in your contact list by tapping the Search button entering their email address or phone number. This will only work if Google finds a google account using that phone number or email. If it does find someone, you can select them and continue. If it doesn't find a Google account with that address, then you can't use this method. After tapping the share button choose "Share to apps" instead and select your email or texting app.

Use this saved conversation next time

The photos sent between you and this recipient are still collected in a shared album, just like before the change. So, next time you want to send a photo, instead of selecting the photo and tapping the share button, you can tap on your sharing section and find the album shared between the two of you and tap the Add to album  button.

 For more info, read  announcement here. or  Help Center article

Sharing with a Link

This is still my preferred way of sending photos to someone when I don't know if they use Google Photos, or what messaging app they use. When you select photo(s), click the Share button and you should see an option to "Create Link" (on iOS, you need to tap on "Share To:" before you see Create Link.)  Once you have a link created, you'll see the message "Link Copied, you can share it in an app." Now you can go to any app you'd like, email, text, WhatsApp, Facebook, anything, and paste that link. Any recipient will be able to click the link and see the photos.  Don't know how to 'paste?" Here's a video. 

I keep a running list of all the Google Photos updates I notice. You can see my list by visiting GeeksOnTour.com/google-photos and click on the heading for Google Photos updates. 

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Chris Guld is President and Teacher-in-Chief at GeeksOnTour.com. She has been in computer training and support since 1983. She is now a Product Expert for the Google Photos Forum, owner of the LearnGooglePhotos.com blog, and author of Mrs. Geek's Guide to Google Photos. 
She loves to teach! If you want to learn, you’ve come to the right place.