Google Photos to work with more digital picture frames

Digital picture frame companies have been using Google Photos tools to send your pictures and videos to their devices for a while. But this month, Google is updating those tools, which will stop the old way of connecting. Don’t worry—they’re giving a new option instead.

According to The Verge, brands like Aura and Cozyla won’t be able to link to Google Photos the same way starting now. Before, Aura’s app let people pick photos from their Google Photos collection and send them to the frame. There was even a handy “auto-add” feature that grabbed new pictures from chosen albums and sent them over automatically.

With these updates, announced by Google back in September, Aura users will need to save photos from Google Photos themselves and then upload them using Aura’s app or website. Google says these changes are all about “making user privacy better.” They’ve also created special tools for digital picture frames and a program to help companies switch to the new system.

“We’re always trying to improve our tools to keep your privacy safe. We’ve made new options just for digital picture frames and are helping our partners update their products,” a Google spokesperson explained. It’s not totally clear how this will look for users yet. One clue might be how Google recently shared that Google Photos slideshows are coming to more devices like tablets, smart TVs, picture frames, and even refrigerators.

The new setup for picture frame companies could be like what’s already used for Nest Hubs, Google or Android TVs, Chromecasts, and Pixel Tablets. Those let you control slideshows right from the Google Photos app (under Settings > Apps & devices > Photo frames). We don’t know yet if these updates will be ready when the old Google Photos tools stop working. For now, it’s a wait-and-see moment for anyone with a digital frame.