Update (11/25/19 @ 10:40 AM ET): Google has officially announced that Google Photos is getting a markup feature.

In a bid to make annotations easier, Google rolled out a new markup tool in Android 9 Pie last year. While it was initially limited to devices running Android 9, it was later unofficially ported over to phones running older versions of Android. Earlier this year in September, Google started testing a couple of new features in the Google Photos app. Among these were the new album sorting options and a similar markup tool for the image editor in the app. Now, the markup tool is finally rolling out in the latest update for Google Photos and it aims to make adding annotations a whole lot easier.

As reported by Android Police, the new markup feature appears in the editing UI within Google Photos, right next to the crop and rotate tool. The tool currently gives you the option to choose between a couple of colors and two different pen types. The feature works pretty much like you'd expect it to, just tap on the new icon, choose a color/pen type and scribble your annotation. Once you're satisfied with your artwork, tap on Done and then save the edited photo.

As of now, the feature is only available to a handful of users and we didn't have it on any of our devices at the time of writing. On top of that, since Google switched to app bundles, there's no way to install updated APKs to trigger the feature manually. However, since the feature has already started appearing for some Google Photos users, we expect the company to roll it out to all users sometime in the next few days.

It's worth noting that Google has been adding a ton of new features to Google Photos over the last couple of weeks. The app has already received a document cropping extension, new sorting options in the Albums tab, and a video frame exporter exclusively for the Pixel 4. Google has also started testing a new feature in version 4.32 of the app which will allow you to add face tags to photos manually.

Source: Android Police


Update: Official

Shared in a short post on the Google Support Forums, the Google Photos team has confirmed that markup is rolling out to the Android app starting today. As mentioned in the original article above, this is the same tool that you can use to edit screenshots. Now it can be used to draw, highlight, or add text to photos. Google has added information about how to use it here.

Google Photos Developer: Google LLC
Price: Free
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Via: Android Police