Google Photos media could soon be accessible via Android’s new Photo Picker

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.

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.

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.