Tech
Here’s our first look at Google Photos’ My Week feature (APK teardown)
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
TL;DR
- We’ve managed to enable Google Photos’ upcoming My Week feature ahead of the official rollout.
- The feature will let users share weekly memories with friends and family.
- Recipients will see shared photos in the Memories carousel and will be able to leave likes and comments on the photos.
Google Photos could soon get a new sharing feature called My Week, which will let users share weekly memories with friends and family. We first spotted the feature in a teardown earlier this year, and we’ve managed to enable it ahead of the rollout to give you an early look at how it might work.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
Although My Week is not live in Google Photos version 6.90, we were able to enable it manually to grab the following screenshots of its UI. As you can see, the feature shows up as a new “Introducing My Week” tile in the Memories carousel. Tapping on it opens a setup wizard to help users select photos they wish to share and send invites to let others view their weekly memories.
Once set up, selected photos appear in a dedicated card in the Memories carousel, and users can tap on it to access a new My Week section to add more photos, view photos shared in previous weeks, and send messages to invited contacts.
Similarly, recipients should see shared weekly memories in the Memories carousel on their devices. However, tapping on the tile on the receiving end opens a slideshow with options to like the photos and leave a comment.
Along with the My Week feature, we’ve spotted a few minor changes that could roll out to users with a future Google Photos update. These include UI changes for the Places section with a new map at the top and an update for photo details that shows if the photo is part of an album or memory.
Google also appears to be moving the Sharing activity option to the Updates section for easier access, but users should also be able to view their sharing activity by heading to the app settings.