Google Photos 3.0 is out now, with automatic sharing features

Google Photos gets automatic sharing powered by facial recognition.

If you remember back at Google I/O, new sharing features were announced for Google Photos. Most of the features revolved around making sharing easier or more likely to happen, with features like "Shared Libraries" and "Suggested Sharing." Google announced on its blog that those features are finally ready and are shipping now in Google Photos 3.0.

"Shared Libraries" lets you pick a Google Photos contact and automatically share your library with them, including new pictures. This can be either your entire library or just photos of specific people, powered by Google's facial recognition. This feature sounds just a little bit scary, but the idea is to give parents an easy way to share pictures of their children. You can restrict this by date, giving people access to pictures taken after a certain date. The person you share with can pick and choose what photos they want in their library, too. Again, the recipient of a shared library can select options to save only specific people or all photos. To set this up, you should see a "Shared libraries" option in the side navigation panel.

The other new feature is "suggested sharing," which lives in the new "Sharing" tab in the bottom tab bar. Google says this feature "recognizes a meaningful moment like a summer BBQ or wedding, selects the right shots, and suggests who may want to see the photos."

This will again be powered by facial recognition—if Google Photos spots a contact in a group of pictures, it will suggest sharing the group of pictures with that person. Picture grouping will happen by time (pictures taken close together are probably from the same activity) and location. Recipients of the shared photos will also be prompted to add their own photos to the event if they're using Google Photos.

Google says the sharing features are rolling out now across Android, iOS, and the Web.