Google Photos vs. Gallery app: What's the difference and which should you use?

Gallery is a pared-down option if you don’t need Photos’ cloud backup and editing features.

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Did you know that Google has another, simpler app for images called Gallery? We're not talking about preloaded applications made by Android brands like Samsung's Gallery, but an app that Google itself developed. It's a stripped-down alternative you can use if you don't really care for most of Google Photos' features and just want something that will let you organize your images. 

If you're wondering which one you should use between the two, well... you don't really have to pick. You may have to download the Gallery app from Google Play, but you can have both on your phone and just use one or the other when you want to.

Photos has cloud backup, Gallery doesn't

One of the most important differences between the two apps is that Photos can automatically back up your images to the cloud, whereas Gallery can't. You can switch on automatic backup in Photos by tapping on your avatar at the top right corner of the screen and then Backup, where you can toggle on the option. 

You can see how much cloud storage space you can free up on your profile, as well. Old personal Google accounts come with 15GB of free storage, but new accounts created on or after March 9, 2026 only come with 5GB by default, with the option to unlock 10GB more by verifying a valid phone number. Your storage is shared across the Google services you use, including Gmail, Drive, WhatsApp and, yes, Photos. To expand your storage space, you will have to pay for a Google One subscription, which will cost you $2 per month for 100GB of storage or $3 for 200GB. 

Buying additional storage is probably the quickest way to make sure you don't run out of space on your phone. You'll also see the option Free up space on this device when you tap on your profile image within the Photos app. Doing that will delete items from your device that are already safely backed up to the cloud in the quality of your choice. One important thing to keep in mind is that if you manually move images to Trash in both Photos and Gallery, they will also be permanently removed from your cloud backup and all the devices where you have the app installed after 30 days.

If you don't mind regularly and manually backing up your device, as well as deleting images from your phone, you can simply use the Gallery app. You can buy an external storage drive that plugs into your phone's USB-C port to save your photos instead of relying on cloud backup.

Photos has more comprehensive editing tools than Gallery

Since Gallery is a simpler app, it also has minimal editing tools. It has Rotate, Crop and a handful of filters you can apply to your images. Meanwhile, Google Photos has access to a wider range of editing tools, including AI enhancements. You'll be able to adjust an image's brightness, contrast, tone, highlights and shadows in Photos. You can add blurring effects, sharpen and even move certain elements to other parts of the image. You can also doodle on the image, add text and highlights and use a one-tap tool that automatically smoothens skin texture, whitens teen and reduces under-eye shadows. 

If you regularly edit your images, Photos may be the better app for you, unless you already have a trusty editing app. Gallery is good enough if you just want to crop your photos sometimes. You can share images to social media or send them via email or messagings app through both Google Photos and Gallery anyway, so that doesn't have to factor into your choice.