Google adds ‘Insert Photo’ button for mobile Gmail
The tech giant continues to integrate its products by letting users send photos and videos from a smartphone using Google+’s Auto Backup feature.
While smartphone cameras have helped to make everyone a photographer, sometimes organizing and sharing those photos can be a pain. Google is looking to ease this process by adding a new "Insert Photo" button to mobile Gmail messages.
"Unless you're a budding Ansel Adams, odds are you take most of your photos using your phone. And whether it's photos of your hiking trip or a night out, sending photos to friends and family just got easier," Gmail product manager Thijs van As wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. "When you click the button, you'll instantly access all the photos that are backed up from your mobile devices, starting with the most recent."
This new feature is part of Google's massive product integration. To get the "Insert Photo" button for Gmail, users have to turn on Auto Backup via Google+. This feature automatically backs up all of users' photos and videos to the social network -- think of it as another type of a mobile photo stream.
The "Insert Photo" feature also works for entire albums that users have organized on Google Photos. Additionally, the feature lets users resize images within Gmail. Users should begin seeing the new button today.
Google has been boosting its photo features for Google+ over the past few months. Last October, the company added a bevy of photo editing and search tools to the social network; and in February, it added other new features, like 100 percent zoom and the ability to give photos an HDR look with a filter called HDR Scape.