Newer Galaxy phones can now use Android's new photo picker for cloud photos

Last month, Google released a new feature to Android’s photo picker, which is the ability to display media from cloud backup apps, such as Google Photos, along with photos and videos stored locally on the same screen. Back then, the company made the feature available only to Pixel devices via the February 2024 Google Play System Update. However, despite installing the software update, many people were not able to access the new feature as it is a server-side change. Well, that’s fortunately changing today.

According to a new report from 9To5Google, Google is making the ability for Android’s photo picker to display media from the cloud along with media stored locally, available to a wider range of devices, and fortunately, it includes phones and tablets from Samsung. We can confirm that the feature is available on our Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S24 in India. The company might be rolling out the feature in phases. So, a few people might get the feature before others. If you don’t see it, you will have to wait for a few more days.

Currently, this new feature of Android’s photo picker is only supported by Google Photos. However, Google has made APIs available for developers to integrate this feature into their cloud media apps. Expect other such apps to start offering support for the new feature in the next couple of weeks or months.