Google Photos Gives Your Collections Tab a Makeover You Control

Google Photos Gives Your Collections Tab a Makeover You Control

Pinned Shortcuts Open the Page, and You Pick What Stays

Google Photos is rolling out a redesigned Collections tab on Android, and customization is the whole point. According to 9to5Google, the page now opens with a section called "Pinned," a horizontal carousel of shortcut cards for the collections you reach for most. By default it shows Favorites, Screenshots, and Trash, but you can swap in other collections or remove the section entirely. French outlet 01net adds the how-to detail: long-press a card to unpin it, tap the "+" button to pin new folders, and drag them into whatever order you like.

Category Carousels Replace the Rigid Grid

Below Pinned sit carousels for the big buckets: On this device, Albums, People & pets, Wardrobe, Places, and Documents. As 9to5Google reports, each section can be hidden individually and reordered at will, and a "View all" button in the top-right corner of each carousel jumps straight to the full grid or list view. It is a clear break from the old fixed layout that showed everyone the same arrangement regardless of how they actually use the app.

An "Other Collections" Grid Rounds Out the Page

The bottom of the page holds an "Other Collections" grid sweeping up the rest: Favorites, Screenshots, Moments, Videos, Recently Added, Stickers, Creations, Archive, Locked, and Trash, ten entries in total, with a "Reorder" button underneath for rearranging them. Brazilian outlet TecStudio, covering the same rollout, frames it as the end of the one-size-fits-all grid: face-search power users can push People & pets to the top, while screenshot hunters can pin Screenshots and hide everything else.

No Official Announcement as Version 7.97 Carries the Update

Google has published no blog post or changelog for the change; it surfaced through hands-on reporting. 9to5Google says the redesign is rolling out widely with Google Photos 7.97 as a server-side update, and notes an odd trigger: instead of the usual force-stop trick, its team got the new layout by restarting the phone and then opening the Photos app. The Daily Tech Feed places the move in a longer refresh that began with a floating navigation bar rollout in July.

Android First, and Power Organizers Gain the Most

Every report so far describes the Android version of Google Photos, with no word on when iOS follows. Digital Trends argues the winners are heavy users with large libraries and entrenched organizing habits: pin what you open daily, hide what you never touch, and the path to any photo gets shorter. Casual users who rarely leave the main Photos feed may barely notice anything changed.

What to Watch as the Rollout Widens

Because the switch is server-side, even users already on 7.97 may wait days to see it; NewsBytes suggests restarting the device and reopening the app as the simplest way to check. Worth watching next: where sensitive entries like Archive and the Locked folder settle in each user's custom layout, whether iOS gets parity, and whether Google formally announces a change that, for now, it has let speak for itself.