Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
TL;DR Google is updating Android’s Photo Picker with new features to make finding media easier.
A new date scrubber lets you quickly navigate your gallery by jumping to a specific month.
The search tool is also getting an update with a new voice search option for hands-free use.
When you need to share a photo or video, Android’s Photo Picker lets you do so without granting an app access to your entire media gallery. It uses a simple, two-tab UI to help you selectively share media: the main “Photos” tab displays your images in reverse chronological order, while the “Collections” tab shows any albums you’ve created. However, finding the right image can be difficult if it’s not part of a collection. Fortunately, Google is introducing new features to make it easier.
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With the rollout of Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3 earlier today, Google has updated the Photo Picker with two new features. First, it now has a date scrubber that lets you quickly navigate your photo collection, similar to the one in Google Photos. When you scroll through the Photos tab, a handle appears that you can drag to jump to a specific month.
This is a huge time-saver, especially if you have a large photo collection. Instead of endlessly scrolling through your gallery, you can just drag the handle to find what you’re looking for. This works best, of course, if you know which month the photo was taken in, though scrolling might help jog your memory.
The second, more minor change is to the search tool that rolled out last month. Previously, you could only search your gallery with a text query, but Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3 adds a microphone button to the search box. Tapping it launches a voice input dialog, allowing you to perform a voice search through your photo collection — a useful option for when your hands are occupied.
Although these improvements to the Photo Picker are currently only live in Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3, they’ll be coming to older Android versions in a future Google Play System Update. We don’t know exactly when that’ll happen, but we’ll be sure to let you know when the update rolls out. For a breakdown of other changes in Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3, check out this article!
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