Google Photos may be one of the most popular ways to store your digital snaps, but it's also expanding its print photo offerings too – including the ability to order as many physical copies of your favorite snaps as you like.
Previously, Google Photos' delivery service chose your ten 'best' photos each month (according to its AI algorithm) and delivered them to you for $7 a month. But you can now decide which snaps you want prints of within the app and order unlimited copies of them, starting at $0.18 per print.
Like before, you can order in 4x6in, 5x7in or 8x10in sizes, but there are also four new print sizes on offer: 11x14in, 12x18in, 16x20in and 20x30in. If you need your snaps super-urgently, you can also order your prints for same-day pick-up from local stores, including Walmart, CVS and Walgreens.
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These wider print options aren't the only new additions to Google Photos in the US. There's also some new canvas print options, which Google says are "responsibly crafted with premium materials". Over the next few weeks, it'll be adding six extra canvas print sizes (8x10, 16x16, 20x30, 24x36, 30x40 and 36x36) to its options, which start at $19.99.
This all comes on top of Google Photos' existing printing options, including photo books (which start at $9.99 and are available in softcover and hardcover), and the 'premium print series', which was its existing service that delivered ten card-stock photos for your home for $6.99 per month.
The latter is the most Google-like offering of the bunch, given it uses algorithms to suggest your best photos of the month, but it's now just one option in what is a fast-growing menu of print options from the search giant.
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Google has been in the photo printing game since way back in 2018, when it launched it first photo book service in the US. But it was only last year that it started test-driving its AI-powered 'Premium Print Service', before ending the pilot on June 30 2020.
That service restarted in October 2020, and now Google has shown that it's fully committed to giving us physical copies of the digital snaps we have stored in its cloud service.
Google Photos isn't the cheapest photo printing service around, with the likes of Walmart and Snapfish often coming in at under ten cents per print. But it does offer the significant convenience factor of letting you print directly from an app where many people back up their phone snaps.
While we haven't yet tested out its Premium Print Service, that does also offer the kind of Google smarts that you won't find in more traditional photo print services. There are further areas that Google could expand into, including metal prints and wood prints, but its new range is certainly a good start for most non-professional users.
Whether or not it'll ultimately join the Google Graveyard of discontinued services depends very much on how popular those new print services turn out to be.
