Release notes

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This page is updated with each new release of the Google Photos Library API. The changelog lists releases by date and includes any new features, bug fixes and other changes.

The documentation and guides point to the latest version to use.

September 16, 2024

Features

Notes

This release we announced key changes to the Library API (effective March 31, 2025).

  • The Library API will only manage photos and videos created by your app.
  • Removal of photoslibrary.readonly, photoslibrary.sharing, and photoslibrary scopes.
  • Restriction of several methods to app-created content only.

Complete details are posed in the Updates to the Google Photos APIs page.

October 27, 2022

Notes

  • The "Build a Photo Sharing app with Google Photos and Flutter" codelab is no longer available. Review our other samples and refer to the sample code within our guides.

June 1, 2022

Notes

  • Added best practices for uploading to help clarify the upload process, call out common errors and how to avoid them, and provide tips for improving upload efficiency.

October 27, 2021

Features

  • Google Photos Partner Program: launch of the premier tier. The premier tier is a suite of enhanced API features that leverage the powerful machine intelligence of Google photos.

September 29, 2021

Features

  • New option to sort date filter based searches . Results can be sorted newest first or oldest first. This allows for easier searching and improves efficiencies by providing better targeted search results.

July 21, 2021

Features

  • New -no parameter for video base URLs to load thumbnails without a playback button overlay. By default video thumbnails load with a playback button overlay. This new parameter gives you control to hide the playback button on video thumbnails.

Resolved issues

  • Issue 181282432: Video thumbnails always displayed with a playback button overlay.

May 25, 2021

Resolved issues

  • exposureTime property was not populated for photo metadata in media items.

May 19, 2021

Notes

February 11, 2021

Notes

July 7, 2020

Features

February 17, 2020

Features

  • The maximum upload file size of a photo has been increased from 75 MB to 200 MB.
  • When you upload files, a MIME type must now be specified in the byte upload stage.
  • You now specify filenames when creating a media item, instead of when uploading media bytes. The new fileName property in simpleMediaItem supports UTF-8 strings. You can still specify a media item's filename when uploading media bytes, however we strongly recommend updating your implementation.

Notes

August 16, 2019

Features

  • Issue 131874809: New property isOwned in shareInfo to identify if the user is the owner of the shared album. More details are available in the share media developer guide.

Resolved issues

June 12, 2019

Features

Notes

May 7, 2019

Codelabs

April 29, 2019

Features

Notes

February 14, 2019

Notes

Resolved issues

January 21, 2019

Resolved issues

January 7, 2019

Resolved issues

November 30, 2018

Features

Resolved issues

September 6, 2018

Features

Notes

  • Google Photos Library API has entered the general availability. Thanks for your feedback and feature requests during the Library API developer preview period.
  • Check out the new guides for getting started with Java and PHP client libraries.
  • Sample Java and PHP code snippets have been added to the guides to demonstrate the usage of client libraries.

September 5, 2018

Features

Resolved issues

Notes

  • If you stored IDs (such as IDs for albums, media items or enrichment items) before 5 September 2018, they will no longer work as the format has changed. You will need to obtain new IDs for use in your application.
  • The totalMediaItems property of the album resource has been renamed to mediaItemsCount.
  • The maximum value of the pageSize parameter in the mediaItems.list and mediaItems.search calls has been changed to 100. The default number of media items returned when the pageSize parameter is not specified has been changed to 25.
  • List library contents, Share media and Access media items guides updated with the excludeNonAppCreatedData](/photos/library/guides/apply-filters#nonapp-created) filter feature released on July 31, 2018.

July 31, 2018

Features

Resolved issues

Preview release - May 8, 2018

Initial release of the Library API.

Known issues

  • GET mediaItem throws an error if the media item id it receives is for a media item that's from a shared album and isn't owned by the user.
  • The response from the batchCreate call won't return mediaMetadata or contributorInfo.
  • If the media item is a video, the batchCreate call won't return a mimeType.
  • batchCreate doesn't maintain consistent order when uploading multiple items.
  • batchCreate doesn't support ordering (adding in a position) when creating media items in a shared album as the owner of the shared album. It defaults to the end of the album.