Phones
Google Photos vs. Gallery: Which One Do You Actually Need?
Engadget compares Google's two photo apps – one feature-rich with cloud backup, the other simple and local.
Google makes two photo apps. One is Google Photos, which you've probably heard of. The other is called Gallery, and it's a stripped-down alternative you can download from Google Play. Engadget ran through the differences, and the short answer is: you don't really have to choose. You can have both on your phone.
The biggest difference: Photos can automatically back up your images to the cloud. Gallery can't. Tap your avatar in the top right of Photos, then Backup, and flip the toggle. You get 15GB of free storage on old personal accounts, but if you created a new account on or after March 9, 2026, you only get 5GB by default. You can unlock another 10GB by verifying a phone number. That storage is shared across Gmail, Drive, WhatsApp and Photos. Need more? Google One costs $2 a month for 100GB or $3 for 200GB.
If you use Photos, you'll also see a "Free up space on this device" option under your profile image. That deletes photos that are already backed up. One catch Engadget notes: if you manually move images to Trash in either Photos or Gallery, they vanish from cloud backup and all your devices after 30 days.
Gallery is simpler, so it has minimal editing: Rotate, Crop and a few filters. Photos has a wider range, including AI enhancements. You can adjust brightness, contrast, tone, highlights and shadows. You can add blur, sharpen, even move elements around. There's a one-tap tool that smoothens skin, whitens teeth and reduces under-eye shadows. If you regularly edit, Photos is the better app — unless you already have a trusty editing app. Gallery is fine if you just crop sometimes.
You can share images to social media or email from either app, so that's a wash.
**Our take:** You probably don't need Photos' AI editing. Gallery does the basics, and you can back up manually or plug in a USB-C drive. The real question is whether you want Google storing every picture you take. If you do, Photos works. If you don't, Gallery keeps your photos on your phone and your decision.
"Gallery is good enough if you just want to crop your photos sometimes." — Engadget
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