Earlier this year during Google I/O, Google officially unveiled the new Photos application that would be finding a home on Android devices. With the announcement and launch came a host of new changes to the app that weren’t previously available, most notably the seemingly limitless storage in the cloud for pictures. If you use Photos and are looking for an easier way to access the app from say, inside the stock Google camera app, in the most recent updates to Photos which should bring users to version 1.10, there is now an option to enable a mini floating thumbnail to pop up on top of the camera UI when the app is open.
This little icon jumps right to the Photos application from inside the camera so if you wanted or needed a quicker way to access photos without having to hit the recents button, or jump to the app drawer and open it for the first time, you can do so. The thumbnail is also of the last captured image, sort of like a preview, so you can see what the picture is you’ll be jumping to once you open it up. Not all users are seeing this change to the app just yet, so it’s more than likely that Google is flipping the switch on this feature tweak in a slower rollout so a smaller group of users first before rolling it out to everyone.
For those that are on the latest version of the Photos app and want to check and see if they have the feature themselves, the toggle button is located inside of the settings menu. Simply open up Google Photos, jump to settings, and scroll down just a tad to find the toggle for an option that’s labeled “camera shortcut,” under which it’s described that if you enable this option, you’ll be adding a shortcut to the photos app that you can access from within the camera. As stated this isn’t an option that all users are seeing right now, so it could still be a little bit before all users with the Google Photos are able to toggle this on and off at their leisure. If you don’t have the latest version of Google Photos, you can grab the apk from the link below.
