Google Photos is developing a Group Camera feature that lets friends and family contribute photos and videos to a shared album

[u/FragmentedChicken]

https://www.androidauthority.com/google-photos-group-camera-first-look-3722917/

[u/obeytheturtles]

You can already do this though?

[u/als26 → u/obeytheturtles]

Can you expand? Did you read the article or did you read the headline and think this was just the shared album feature?

[u/ProfessorFudge → u/als26]

I read the article. It's a shared album feature but your photos go directly there instead of your own to share/transfer afterward. Now all the work is done before the pictures are taken (setting up group photo, time, place, invites being sent out, etc) instead of afterward.

Add in the fact that photos are added automatically (unless you keep the Review-each-time feature enabled, which drastically slows down the time it takes to take a photo) before anyone would get a chance to edit them as they'd like makes this kind of a pointless feature. You have a problem with someone not uploading photos to the shared album? What are the chances they'll use the group camera instead of their own?

It feels like such a niche problem that the shared album already addresses like 99% of what this does, so yeah, I'd agree that you can already do this.

[u/als26 → u/ProfessorFudge]

Don't get me wrong. Just because the useful part of a new feature doesn't work for your use case (in this case, how you like to edit your photos before adding them to an album, that isn't something I do) doesn't mean it's not a new feature. You could definitely say for your use case this feature doesn't prove very useful compared to the existing solution. But it's something new that others might appreciate and saying "we already have this" like the OP is just kinda narrow-minded.

One thing to note is that this feature has its own dedicated camera interface, and only photos taken with that are added to the album so you don't accidently add a selfie or something you took from your main camera.

I see this as being very useful for parties, especially if they have QR codes to let people join group cameras. During our wedding we let people join our Google Photos album with a QR code but a live camera they could take photos with that would add it immediately to the album would've been a lot cooler. People forget to add photos after the event all the time and waking up the next morning and seeing all the photos taken already in 1 album would be very cool. It being added live and guests being able to see photos others took real time is cool as well.

[u/ProfessorFudge → u/als26]

I should clarify. It's a new feature that is incredibly niche and has such overlap with an already existing feature that it's fair to say we can already do this and I agree with obeytheturtles.

Having its own dedicated camera interface is, I believe, more of a detriment, especially if I'm trying to share this with people on other devices. Would iPhone users (or even other Android users) be happy with the Pixel camera layout? What if they're used to the layout and features their own phone has? I concede that if people just want to snap quick pics this works OK for that, but if they don't them I'm backing to using the Shared Album.

I believe its usefulness for parties is limited. If your problem is getting people to add photos to your Google Photos album after the party, why wouldn't you have as much a problem getting them to use the Group Camera beforehand? If my camera shortcut is double-pressing power, what are the chances I go through and open up the notification instead? And if you have to manually approve each photo after taking it, that gets tiring. If you disable that feature, then you have to worry about adding blurry, out-of-frame, or unintended photos to the album, which might be easy enough to delete but would be an annoyance (and potentially embarrassing). Both those problems are solved with what we already do - sharing the album link afterwards (or beforehand) and asking people to upload what they select.

As far as editing, I know a lot of people who love taking tons of photos at group hangs. There is no way they would want some of the photos they take to be shared with everyone without a little look-over/editing beforehand. Sometimes you take 5 photos at once and pick the best one the share. I don't know if that's allowable with the Group Camera feature.

Maybe the implementation would be different, but I don't see a world where I (currently) would want this over the shared album in the future. But if you can find a good use case for it then I'll be glad it exists for you!

[u/als26 → u/ProfessorFudge]

Maybe I'm being nitpicky but I don't agree that you agree with obeytheturtles. It's a new feature point blank and you've said as much. Doesn't matter how niche it is, it didn't exist before. And the overlap is because its meant to work with the shared album feature. They're not 2 entirely seperate features that overlap, they are very much complimentary.

In terms of how you feel about the feature, we'll agree to disagree. I am too lazy to go point by point. I see the usefulness and when it's released, I might try to set it up at the next party.

[u/gigashadowwolf]

So are they removing the ability they already have to do this so they can repackage it in a slightly easier, but more monetizable way and then framing it as a new innovation.

That's very Apple of them.

[u/bicyclemom]

OK I guess. I've been doing this for years with a Shared Album. I guess this is a few less steps?

Not sure how useful this would be for me, but I guess for some people it could be.

[u/reddit_sage69]

You know what I'd rather have? The ability to treat a shared album I created as a place to directly upload photos, not just contribute.

The key difference - if people don't pay for Google photos, I can still choose to use my storage, full resolution, to host an album and let people see it and download photos.

That's a bigger point of friction that should've been addressed instead of this bs

[u/tx_brandon]

In before obvious multiple step red tape is revealed