It has been two years since Google decoupled its Drive and Photos services for a “simplified experience”, preventing photos from synchronizing with its cloud-based storage. For many, Google Photos image management has become much less simplified on Chrome OS: you would have to download your images from the Google Photos app to organize them in the file manager. Several users expressed frustration at the lack of synergy between Photos and the file app, citing how frustrating it is to import a selection of images into Chrome OS. However, that could change soon, as we discovered a couple of work in progress commits that suggest a deeper integration of Google Photos with the file manager.
As seen recently at Chromium Gerrit, developers are laying the groundwork for Google Photos to reside in the Chrome OS file manager navigation panel. This commit explains that you will be able to see your Google Photos uploads when selecting files in the file picker.
[filesapp] Show only the volume of the photos in the file chooser.
The Google Photos volume should only be shown when selecting files on Chrome OS and hidden when browsing or selecting files on ARC.
BUG = 1170198
For reference, ARC (or rather, ARC ++) integrates the Android subsystem deeply into Chrome OS, allowing you to run Google Play apps on your Chromebook. There’s not much to see here, but if we look inside select_file_ash.cc, a snippet of code adds an entry point for Google Photos in the navigation pane of the Chrome OS file manager. However, in arc_select_files_handler.cc, Google Photos will not appear in the Android file picker.
The other commit adds a large amount of code that implements a welcome banner and Google Photos visibility logic for the Chrome OS file manager.
[filesapp] Add a welcome banner for Android photos
Displays a welcome banner for the Android Photos DocumentsProvider volume. The banner is shown up to 3 times, unless dismissed.
BUG = 1171651
Inside file_manager_strings.gdrp, the strings confirm that you will be able to browse and select your recent photos in the file manager, which is a huge victory for those who want deeper integration with Google Photos. You will need to install the Google Photos Android application version for it to appear in the navigation panel.
The integration of Google Photos into the file manager will undoubtedly save a lot of time for those who want to import images from Google Photos to Chrome OS quickly. At the moment, it is not clear whether Google will merge the commits into the Chromium source code. We will remain attentive to the changes and update when we find out more.
