Android 13’s Photo Picker was a breath of fresh air for privacy-conscious users. Unlike the all-or-nothing access of app-specific pickers, it granted granular control over what photos and videos you share. But its usefulness was limited – your local library was all it knew. However, good news is on the horizon, with cloud media providers like Google Photos finally preparing to join the party.
Recent Google Photos updates reveal full support for the Photo Picker for cloud support. Activating this feature via a hidden flag opens a new “Cloud media app” page in settings, where you can enable Google Photos. This, in turn, unlocks a “Google Photos access” option within the Photos app, letting you grant the Photo Picker permission to your cloud library.
This functionality was announced during Google I/O 2022 and has since then 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 adopt the Photo Picker, giving users unparalleled control over their shared memories. Hopefully, with Google Photos paving the way, other cloud providers like Microsoft OneDrive will follow suit, creating a truly universal and privacy-respecting sharing experience on Android.
As great as this all sounds, some issues still need to be worked out with the Photo Picker. For example, as noted by Android expert, Mishaal Rahman, app-created albums like Snapseed’s remain hidden in the “Photos” tab, absent from “Albums.” Additionally, he’s found that cloud media doesn’t appear in the new Android 14 permission dialog for partial access.
Yet, these are minor hiccups in a major step forward. The hope is that other cloud providers will see the benefit of using the Photo Picker and begin to have their app developers implement the changes necessary to turn this feature on for them. Google has already taken the first step to make this happen.