Samsung Introduces Google Account Sync for Gallery App, Making Photo Backups Easier

Good news for Samsung users. Until recently, Samsung smartphone users could back up photos and videos from the phone's built-in Gallery app through Microsoft OneDrive. However, Samsung discontinued the service last September.

Now, the South Korean technology giant has officially unveiled a new feature that enables syncing with Google accounts.

As a result, Samsung device users will no longer need to open the separate Google Photos app to back up files to Google. They can now automatically sync photos and videos directly to Google from the phone's native Samsung Gallery app.

How the New Feature Works

• Easy Cloud Access: After linking a Google account to the Gallery app, users will be able to see preview thumbnails of backed-up photos and videos. If the same account is signed in on other Galaxy devices, they can easily download and use the full versions of those files.

• ‘Free Up Space’ Feature: A new ‘Free up space’ option has been introduced to clear the phone's internal storage. When enabled, the original files will be removed from the phone to free up storage space, while their thumbnails will remain visible in the Gallery app.

• Limitations: Once Google sync is enabled in the Gallery app, only newly uploaded photos will appear in Samsung Gallery. The entire archive already stored in Google will not automatically appear in the app.

Devices That Will Support the Service

The feature has initially been rolled out to selected Galaxy devices running Samsung's new interface, One UI 9. The company has confirmed that it will gradually become available on other Samsung smartphones and tablets running Android.

Users can easily activate the feature by enabling the ‘Sync Photos and Videos’ option under the settings menu of the Samsung Gallery app.

It is worth noting that these synced files will use the default 15 GB of free storage available with a Google account.

//DBTech/BMT/OR//