Google has announced a new private messaging feature on all platforms – Android, iOS, and Web. With that, you can send or receive a message containing a photo or a video and continue the conversation in the form of a thread, without needing to create an album to share pictures.

The new private messaging feature will have a shared picture or a video as the starting point of a conversation after which any number of media can be shared within the thread.

RELATED: ‘What is Google Photos chat‘ | How to get Google Photos Chat

How to use the new chat feature using the Google Photos app on Android

New chats can be created by opening a picture inside the library and tapping the share button. Users can share photos and videos with anyone, provided they have a Google Account and have the contact’s name, email address or phone number.

Requirements

  • Both the sender and recipient should have the Google Photos app installed. Although the app comes pre-installed, you can always download it from the Play Store (link).
  • Both the sender and recipient should have active Google accounts.

Instructions

Follow these steps to use the new private messaging feature on the Google Photos app on Android.

  1. Open the Google Photos app on your Android device.
  2. Open a photo, album, or video.
  3. When the picture is loaded in full-screen, tap Share from the bottom left.
    • You’ll notice a new “Send in Google Photos” section inside the sharing menu.
  4. Select the user to share it to by:
    • Tapping on a suggested contact – The sharing menu will display a few contacts that you’ve interacted with before on Google Photos. Select one of the users to send it to them.
    • Click Search and enter the contact’s name, phone number, or email address. This is when the people you want to send the media to aren’t displayed on the suggested list.
    • Select multiple people to send it to more than one user.
  5. Once the recipients are selected, you can add a text to go with it.
    • If not, proceed to Step 6.
  6. Tap on Send.
    • A thread will be created to make ongoing conversations with the recipient.
    • Users involved in a thread can further send photos and videos, like them and comment on them over time.

There you go! You can now continue a conversation or make a new one directly inside the Photos app.

Note: Google limits photos in a conversation to 20,000. This means you will no longer be able to share pictures in a single thread after it reaches the 20,000 photo threshold.