As reported by Android Police today, it has been 2 years since Google removed Google Drive and syncing Photos, leaving those who depended on this feature with no defined alternatives, except alternative solutions and solutions that waste time. However, that may change soon, as some new commits have been discovered in Chromium Gerrit that allude to some work being done to bring this functionality back; although not in exactly the same way.
[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
[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
The above commits mention a welcome banner for the DocumentsProvider volume for Android Photos (erm, Google Photos?), As well as a rule to show only the volume mentioned when selecting files on Chrome OS. That sounds like the opposite of what # arc-file-picker-experiment flag does now, which adds the volume of photos inside ARC – the Android sandbox structure that runs inside Chrome OS – as can be seen in the screenshot below.
In addition, the code confirms that users will be able to access Google Photos directly from the File Manager – not with a Drive sync, as it was done before – as long as the Google Photos app for Android is installed on the Chrome OS device. This may finally be the solution that Chrome OS users have been waiting for a long time. We will have to wait and see how it works after it is implemented, but it has been a long time and is a source of frustration for many. We will update as we learn more about this new feature.
