Google has released a new version of Google Photos. And it's all about your memories. The Google Photos redesign helps you relive the treasured moments you have captured on film. With a simpler UI, an expanded search function, and a new interactive map.

Google Taps Into Your Treasured Memories

Google Photos is a fairly simple app. You shoot photos and videos on your smartphone, and they'll be stored in Google Photos. You can edit them in a few simple ways, but Google Photos is, at its core, all about storing your treasured memories.

In September 2019, Google added Memories to Google Photos. This used the stories format familiar to social media users to put "your memories front and center in Google Photos." And now, Google is making it the focus of Google Photos.

How to Use the New Google Photos Features

Your memories are the key to the new Google Photos. Which is now focused on helping you save, find, view, and share those memories. This has helped shape everything from the user interface to the newest feature, which is a (much-requested) interactive map view.

First up is the UI, which has been simplified into a three-tab structure. There's the main Photos tab containing all of your photos and videos, a Search tab allowing you to search for people, places, and things, and a Library tab with Albums, Favorites, etc.

The Memories feature has been expanded. So, as well as reminding you of where you were and what you were doing on this day years ago, Google Photos will now highlight the best photos of you and your friends, trips taken, and even highlights from last week.

Google has also added a new interactive map view to the Search tab. This, which Google claims to be one of its most-requested features, lets you explore your photos via a map. As you pinch and zoom around the globe, you'll reveal your photos from different locations.

Even iOS Users Should Use Google Photos

Smaller changes to Google Photos include a new logo, which is a simplified form of the original pinwheel design, and the automated creations such as stylized photos and collages moving from the For You tab (which no longer exists) into Memories.

The new Google Photos is rolling out now on Android and iOS. So if you can't yet see the new UI and features, keep an eye out for an update. And if you're an iOS user who hasn't yet made the switch, here are our reasons to use Google Photos over iCloud Photos.