In Android 13, a privacy-focused photo picker was introduced. Instead of giving apps complete access to your gallery, you could choose only a few photos (and/or videos) that would be accessible to the app. It was limited to files stored locally on your phone.
Google has now released an update that allows you to easily select files stored in the cloud. Here’s how it works:
This provides seamless access to photos and videos uploaded from other devices. Another use case is moving photos and videos to the cloud to free up your phone’s storage.
Currently, Google Photos is the only cloud platform that works with the updated photo picker. Other cloud services can use the official API to add support. However, there is a significant limitation. The photo picker only allows cloud services nominated by phone manufacturers. Each manufacturer can nominate up to three services and select one as the default.
Choosing a cloud store provider
The new cloud feature is included in the February Google System Update for phones running Android 12 and later.
