It’s been two years since Google disconnected its Drive and Photos services for a ‘simplified experience’, which prevents photos from being synced with cloud-based storage. For many, managing Google Photos’s images has become much less streamlined in Chrome OS: you need to download your photos from the Google Photos app to organize them in the file manager. Several users have expressed frustration over the lack of synergy between Photos and the Files app, noting how frustrating it is to import a variety of images into Chrome OS. However, that may soon change as we discover some work-in-progress commitments that suggest deeper integration of Google Photos into the file manager.
As recently seen in the Chromium Gerrit, the developers lay the foundation for Google Photos to reside in the navigation window of the Chrome OS file manager. This commitment states that you will be able to see your Google Photos uploads when you select files in the file selector.
[filesapp] Show only the Photos volume in the file selection.
Google Photos volume should only be shown when selecting files in Chrome OS, and hidden when browsing or selecting files in ARC.
BUG = 1170198
For reference, ARC (or rather, ARC ++) integrates the Android subsystem deep into Chrome OS, allowing you to run Google Play apps on your Chromebook. There is not much to see here, but if we look inside select_file_ash.cc, a snippet of code adds an access point to Google Photos in the Chrome OS file manager navigation pane. In arc_select_files_handler.cc, Google Photos will not appear on the Android file selector.
The other connection adds a large amount of code that implements a welcome banner and Google Photos visibility logic in the Chrome OS file manager.
[filesapp] Add a welcome banner for Android Photos
Displays a welcome banner for the Android Photos DocumentsProvider volume. The banner is displayed up to 3 times unless it is rejected.
BUG = 1171651
Within file_manager_strings.gdrp, the strings confirm that you can browse and select recent photos from the file manager, which is a big win for those who want deeper Google Photos integration. You need to install the Android app version of Google Photos so that it can appear in the navigation pane.
The integration of Google Photos into the file manager will undoubtedly be a huge time saver for those who want to quickly import photos from Google Photos into Chrome OS. At this time, it is unclear whether Google will merge the links with the Chromium source code. We will continue to monitor changes and will update as we discover more.
