As reported by Android Police today, it’s been two years since Google retired Google Drive and Photos sync, and those who were addicted to the feature have no choice but to come up with solutions and time-wasting solutions. However, that may soon change, as there are some new connections discovered in the Chromium Gerrit that point to the work being done to bring these features back; although not exactly the same way.
[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
[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
The above commitments include a welcome banner for Android Photos (erm, Google Photos?) DocumentsProvider volume, as well as a rule to show the above volume only if you select files in Chrome OS. It sounds like the opposite of what the # arc-file-voter-experiment flag does it now, which adds the Photos volume within ARC – the sandbox Android framework that runs within Chrome OS – as seen in the screenshot below.
Furthermore, the code confirms this users can access Google Photos directly from the File Manager – not with a Drive sync as before – as long as the Google Photos Android app is installed on the Chrome OS device. This may end up being the long awaited solution for Chrome OS users. We will have to wait to see how it works once it is implemented, but it has long been a source of frustration for many. We will update as we learn more about this new feature.
