You'll need to upload all of your photos to Google's servers, which could take a long time depending on your internet connection and how many photos you have. You might already be content with Apple's Photos app and iCloud, and if that's the case it's probably not worth switching over to Google Photos. If you're unsatisfied with Apple's Photos app, give Google a try There's an app for backing up photo folders on your desktop in the background, but it doesn't have a built-in viewer and editor like Apple's Photos app does. Right now, all you can use is the website to view photos. I also wish there was a better viewing experience for Google Photos on the desktop. The facial recognition isn't always perfect, but it's amazingly accurate most of the time. I wish you could tag certain faces by name like you can in Apple's Photos app instead of just trusting Google to get it right. I only have a couple of qualms with Google Photos. I found myself immediately immersed in my last several years of photos by how Google surfaced old collections. You can swipe through to dismiss the suggestions or let the app do its magic. The Google Photos 'Assistant' automatically recommends albums and collages to create based on what you've uploaded.

The end result is your life's collection of photos available to be instantly searched, and it's quite compelling.

It scans your photos to find faces you can sort by, but it also recognizes places based on popular landmarks or characteristics, like the Yosemite National Park mountain range. Your life's collection of photos available to be instantly searched The name makes it pretty obvious, but Magic Editor will let you manipulate objects within photos by moving them around or creating elements to give more context. Dragging your finger across photos automatically checks or un-checks them, which makes batch editing and deleting much faster than in Apple's Photos app. The app can do fun things like make animated GIFs out of a burst of similar photos or even combine videos and photos into a movie. The real magic happens once your photos are uploaded. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.

Google photo batch edit