5 Google Photos features Apple Photos should steal

As an iPhone user, Apple Photos and iCloud Photos provide a great way to view, edit and back up all your precious pictures. But as a long-time Google Photos user, I find the Apple Photos experience lacking in many respects. In the great Apple Photos vs. Google Photos debate, Apple doesn’t emerge as a clear winner.

Below are five features Apple Photos must steal from Google Photos to win me over.

Apple Photos vs. Google Photos: 5 features Apple should steal

Since smartphones make it easy to capture beautiful photos anywhere and anytime, it’s no surprise that digital photo libraries have grown to massive sizes. I take hundreds of pictures monthly and have meticulously managed an ever-growing photo library for more than a decade in Google Photos.

While not perfect, Google’s cloud-based photo storage service is far superior to Apple Photos.

Wondering why? What changes can Apple make to improve the Apple Photos experience? Read about them below.

1. Full-fledged cross-platform support

You want your cherished photos and videos to be easily accessible, regardless of your platform or device. Apple Photos only works well within Apple’s walled garden. You can seamlessly access your photo library on a Mac, iPhone or iPad by logging into your Apple Account. The revamped Photos app in iOS 18 might be more difficult to use initially, but it is also much more customizable.

However, you are out of luck if you use an Android phone or tablet.

There’s no Apple Photos or iCloud Photos app for Android. This means you won’t be able to access — or, worse, back up — your photo library from a non-Apple device. On Windows, you can integrate iCloud Photos into the stock Photos app. However, the experience is barebones and far inferior to what you’d get on an Apple device.

In comparison, Google provides a dedicated Google Photos app for Android and iPhone. Plus, it provides a tool to back up photos from a Mac or Windows. So, irrespective of the platform, you can safely back up your pictures and videos to Google Photos. And if not in the app, you can always access Google Photos on the web — another area where Apple Photos falters.

2. Provide a better web experience

None of Apple Photos’ advanced features are accessible on the web through iCloud. None. The experience is as barebones as possible, with iCloud Photos only showing the media files in your photo library. You can’t even search through them!

This is due to Apple’s privacy approach with Apple Photos. All its features, including contextual search and editing tools, run on-device for privacy reasons. So, when you access iCloud Photos from the web, you cannot access these features. The subpar web experience is made worse by Apple Photos’ limited cross-platform support. So, if you don’t have access to an Apple device, you can’t search through your pictures or share an album with a family member.

Google again trumps Apple with its offering here. You can get a full-fledged Google Photos experience from any web browser. Whether you want to edit photos, share an album, or use AI-powered search to find a picture in your library, Google Photos provides the same experience on the web as it does in its mobile apps.

3. Apple Photos vs. Google Photos: A comparison of editing tools

Google Photos offers a wider array of editing options than Apple Photos. It features 19 filters versus nine in Apple Photos. Plus, you get many AI-powered filters like Dynamic, HDR and Afterglow. You also get tools like Color Focus, Portrait Light and Blur to enhance and add flair to your photos.

If these editing tools and filters are not enough, Google Photos features Magic Editor. This AI-powered tool lets you erase unwanted objects and move a subject around in a picture after you take it.

While Apple Photos offers a similar feature called Clean Up, it doesn’t work as well at cleaning up images (at least in my testing). It is also less powerful than Magic Editor, as you cannot move a subject around.

Another problem with Clean Up is that, because it is an Apple Intelligence feature, it only works on Apple silicon Macs and iPhone 15 Pro or newer models. In comparison, Google’s Magic Editor works on Android, iPhone and the web.

4. Improve the shared albums experience

Like Google Photos, you can create a shared iCloud Library or shared photo albums. In theory, the latter sounds like a great idea — create an album, share it with friends, and let everyone upload pictures and videos from the event you’ll attend. The problem is that Apple’s shared album implementation is quite poor. It works more like two-way file-syncing than a legit shared photo album.

When you share an album with others, they cannot see the metadata of the images and videos. Perhaps Apple does this for privacy reasons, but it should provide an option to share this data with others. More importantly, Apple reduces all shared photos to 2,048 pixels (3MP). The company caps shared videos videos at 720p resolution and up to 15 minutes in length.

I’m not sure why Apple imposed this quality limitation on shared albums, as it makes the entire feature pointless. I use shared albums with my friends and family to share pictures of events and functions we attend together. Why would I want to share downscaled pictures and videos with them?

Apple Photos vs. Google Photos: Image resolution of shared photos and videos

None of these restrictions apply to Google Photos. It shares full-resolution images and videos; all shared parties can also upload media shot by them in full resolution. Plus, you have the option to hide the location information of the shared data for privacy reasons.

In Google Photos, the shared person can tag a person in a comment. This option does not appear in shared albums in Apple Photos; you can only comment and like a picture.

Apple’s implementation of shared photo albums suffers from several other issues, too. All pictures are sorted by the added date rather than chronologically. A person with whom you shared an album cannot invite more people to it. And you cannot view shared albums on the web.

5. Increase the base storage

Cupertino offers a stingy free 5GB of storage space with every Apple account. I do not expect the company to be generous and offer 50GB or 100GB of free storage space. But it should at least bump this storage to 10GB or 20GB.

Every Google account includes 15GB of free storage, three times the amount offered with an iCloud account. Even better, Google’s lower-end storage tiers cost less than Apple’s. With Google, you can upgrade to 100GB of cloud storage for $1.99 a month, while 200GB storage costs just $2.99 monthly.

In comparison, iCloud’s cheapest paid storage upgrade will get you 50GB of space for 99 cents per month. Weirdly, Apple does not provide a discounted way to pay the storage cost for the entire year upfront. With Google, if you pay annually, you will only need to pay for 10 months of service, which can lead to substantial savings with higher storage plans.

Apple Photos vs. Google Photos: Apple needs to do better

Apple Photos offers notable strengths, especially the customizable interface introduced in iOS 18 and the strong emphasis on privacy. However, compared to Google Photos, it falls short in several areas, leading to a less-than-ideal experience.

If you primarily manage photos on your iPhone or other Apple devices, Apple Photos will suffice. For more advanced photo-management needs, however, Google Photos remains the superior choice. Here’s hoping Apple further improves the Photos experience with the upcoming iOS 19 update.

Sold on Google Photos? Follow our guide on how to transfer your iCloud Photos to Google Photos to make your migration easier.

Rajesh Pandey

Rajesh has been closely following and writing about the latest happenings in the world of mobile for nearly a decade now. While he prefers Android, he does not deny the superiority of Apple’s products and ecosystem.