Google Photos has disrupted the cloud media backup industry. By offering online storage for photos and videos on your smartphone for free, the app is tempting for any Android (or even iPhone) user. An increasing number of Android phones only have the Photos app, with no other default gallery app pre-installed.
But is Google Photos the only image viewer you need on your phone? Probably not. Should you bother with Google Photos at all, and what are the best alternatives? Let's take a look.
Do You Need an Alternative to Google Photos?
There's a lot to love about Google Photos. In addition to backing up images, the service's search and face recognition is industry-leading, plus you can use Google Photos to create albums, animations, and even movies from your photos.
There's something nice about using an app whose interface is similar to what you see if you view your photos in a web browser. And if you have a Google Cast device like a Chromecast, you can easily beam your photos and videos to the big screen.
Having said that, there are some interesting Gallery apps available that do much more. Many of them also have that familiar "gallery app" feel, which should make longtime Android users feel right at home.
1. Simple Gallery
CloseWant a simple, no-nonsense gallery app? Simple Gallery delivers. You can browse the folders on your phone's internal memory, view images in a grid, and swipe around between photos. If it sounds basic, that's the point.
That's not to say the app doesn't come packed with extra features. It lets you change the color of the interface from orange to something more aligned with your taste (I went with blue). There's also an option to set the max screen brightness and auto-rotate images when viewing in full screen. You can also hide the interface entirely whenever you start up the app.
If there's a lot of junk you don't want cluttering up your gallery, you can exclude entire directories from its system scans or tell the app to hide certain images. You can then password-protect those pictures or the entire app.
Note, the free version of the app is a limited trial. You can buy the pro version for $2.99 on Google Play. But Simple Gallery is open-source software, and the developers provide a fully free copy of the pro version on F-Droid as well.
Download:Simple Gallery (Free trial, subscription required unless downloaded from F-Droid)
2. Piktures
This app made it onto our list of the best Android apps in the past. The good news is that all the epic features from QuickPic (a formerly excellent gallery app we no longer recommend you install) are also available in Piktures. Apart from that, this app has a unique design with album cover photos that exhibit a parallax effect.
With Piktures, you can filter by photos, videos, GIFs, or even by location. There's also an interesting calendar view, where it shows a month view with thumbnails and a count of how many photos were taken on a particular day. Piktures also has a QR code scanner built into the app—this should be useful if your default camera app doesn't have it already.
But if that wasn't enough, there's also a neat OCR (Optical Character Recognition) feature that converts text within pictures into an editable format. Just tap any image, select the three-dot button in the top-right, and choose Extract Text (OCR).
Download:Piktures (Free, in-app purchases available)
3. A+ Gallery
Close A+ Gallery has a spartan appearance but with one standout feature. Similar to the Photos app on iOS, it offers a day, month, and year view of all your photos.
Also, you can check where your photos were taken on a map. It's a different way to think about your images. Just be sure to scrub those photos of location data before sharing them online.
There is built-in support for syncing your photos to the A+ Cloud or Dropbox, but there's nothing to stop you from using a different app to back up your photos instead.
Download:A+ Gallery (Free, in-app purchases available)
4. F-Stop Gallery
Close F-Stop Gallery has a similar Places feature that charts the geolocation data from your photos on a map. You can also view the precise coordinates of any photo on Google Maps.
There's a plethora of sorting options in this app—other than sorting by name and date taken, you can also sort by size and even day, week, month, or year. Each image can be rated by a press-and-hold action while viewing it full screen.
While the app is free to install, an upgrade to the Pro version unlocks features like writing metadata, custom sorting, themes, nested albums, and more.
Download:F-Stop Gallery (Free) | F-Stop Gallery Pro ($12.99)
5. Camera Roll
Close There's something to be said for open-source gallery apps. The public source code means you know there's no tracking going on in the background, and that's a big deal when working with something as intimate and identifiable as your photos. So if Simple Gallery isn't scratching the itch for you, consider Camera Roll instead. To prove its open-source credentials, like Simple Gallery, you can also download Camera Roll on F-Droid.
Camera Roll probably won't win you over on features, but it does offer up a stylish, less conventional way of browsing through the photos on your device. And there are zero ads or in-app purchases. The built-in image editor isn't much, but it's easy to open photos in a separate editor if need be.
Download:Camera Roll (Free)
6. Google Gallery
Close If you don't have a problem with the Google ecosystem, then the Google Photos alternative you're looking for may be Google's own Gallery app. Google Gallery is an offline-oriented alternative to Google Photos that lets you look at your images without having to fuss about with integration with a cloud service.
Google Gallery is a snappy app that makes quick work of scrolling through your photos, videos, and folders. You can also apply automatic touch-ups to your images or apply a large number of filters. There isn't much more in the way of features than that, but there also aren't any ads or in-app purchases. That alone is a strong selling point.
Download:Google Gallery (Free)
Want Something More Like Google Photos?
Google Photos is a great app that preserves your precious memories seamlessly in a cost-effective way. But an app that automatically backs up images online comes with privacy concerns, especially when the photos are going to a company with Google's business model. Before you use Google Photos, you may ask yourself who truly owns the photos you store online.
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