Is there a way to get the gallery app back?

[Red Squirrel]

In a recent Android upgrade they seem to have removed the Gallery app. It was an app to let you view pictures you took, screenshots, videos etc all in one place. Is there a way to get that back?

 

[lxskllr]

Leafpic is a decent gallery program.

https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=leafpic&fdid=org.horaapps.leafpic

 

[sweenish]

Why not use Photos? If the requirements you list are all you need, Photos suits the bill just fine.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Is Photos an app? Is it actually called that? I used to just use the built in one, was just an icon that said Gallery. But it's gone now.

 

[core2slow]

Why not use Photos? If the requirements you list are all you need, Photos suits the bill just fine.

Can Photos hide system folders? I hate the fact that Photos on my Pixel C shows every icons/images known to man when you click on device folder and there's no menu option on changing that. Apparently a lot of people are irked by it and all Google does is shrug at the situation. I get what they're trying to do, but I don't want to sync or backup any of my photos, so they're doing a disservice for removing Gallery in the first place. I use QuickPic Gallery and it does everything as expected.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Is Photos an app? Is it actually called that? I used to just use the built in one, was just an icon that said Gallery. But it's gone now.

Yeah Photos replaced Gallery.

 

[sweenish]

Can Photos hide system folders? I hate the fact that Photos on my Pixel C shows every icons/images known to man when you click on device folder and there's no menu option on changing that. Apparently a lot of people are irked by it and all Google does is shrug at the situation. I get what they're trying to do, but I don't want to sync or backup any of my photos, so they're doing a disservice for removing Gallery in the first place. I use QuickPic Gallery and it does everything as expected.

You'll see all your pictures. And extra features on top of photo viewing is a disservice? Sure. Because that toggle switch is so hard to hit. And to protest, you use QuickPic? Hopefully the last version before it got bought my Cheetah Mobile. Otherwise, using a substitute for Gallery whose current top-selling point is all the "free" cloud storage they can give you for syncing while complaining about an official solution that also has syncing is, well, funny.

 

[ericlp]

I think I'm using 6.01 marshmallow. the Gallery app is still there. What version are you using?

Check to make sure it's not disabled.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Android version 5.1.1.... but that does not seem right, not sure if I'm looking at right place. Went to settings and "about phone".

I've been trying to strip out as much Google stuff as I can since I hate the idea of background apps that may be spying on me, so I wonder if some app I deleted/disabled may have messed something up. Been looking into the idea of a custom rom but just have not really gotten around to it.

Speaking of google stuff, what is indic keyboard, and why does it also keep trying to install a korean keyboard? I always deny those updates since it wants access to quite a lot of stuff. Sorry Kim Jun Un you're not getting my contacts. 😛

 

[core2slow]

You'll see all your pictures. And extra features on top of photo viewing is a disservice? Sure. Because that toggle switch is so hard to hit. And to protest, you use QuickPic? Hopefully the last version before it got bought my Cheetah Mobile. Otherwise, using a substitute for Gallery whose current top-selling point is all the "free" cloud storage they can give you for syncing while complaining about an official solution that also has syncing is, well, funny.

I don't think you quite understand the situation. "Photos > Device folder" shows ALL images even the ones from "internal storage > system." Just how exactly is this "extra feature" beneficial to the end-users when they should only be seeing images from their Camera folder, Viber images, whatsapps, etc? There's no way to toggle/uncheck/disable system folders from showing up in Photos.

 

[cronos]

I don't think you quite understand the situation. "Photos > Device folder" shows ALL images even the ones from "internal storage > system." Just how exactly is this "extra feature" beneficial to the end-users when they should only be seeing images from their Camera folder, Viber images, whatsapps, etc? There's no way to toggle/uncheck/disable system folders from showing up in Photos.

Mine doesn't do that. Nothing from 'system'. Only photos from camera folder and the assorted apps.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Oh, I found the app, but it wants me to enable google+. Screw that noise. I don't want it posting stuff randomly to my G+ profile that I don't even want to have in first place but yet have all sorts of friends in there that I never added. G+ is creepy as hell. I don't even know how they know so much about me.

That said, any 3rd party alternatives that are recommended? I'm finding tons when searching but don't want to just blindly install any one.

 

[tdawg]

Oh, I found the app, but it wants me to enable google+. Screw that noise. I don't want it posting stuff randomly to my G+ profile that I don't even want to have in first place but yet have all sorts of friends in there that I never added. G+ is creepy as hell. I don't even know how they know so much about me.

That said, any 3rd party alternatives that are recommended? I'm finding tons when searching but don't want to just blindly install any one.

Google Photos does not post anything to Google+. And it doesn't backup photos to the cloud unless you specifically enable that function and even then, it gets stored to a private "camera roll" type repository, not in any publicly-viewable space.

Not sure how many apps are out there that are as private as you seem to demand them to be, as the selling point these days seems to be cloud storage/backup and easy social sharing.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah but it still wants me to turn on G+, and who knows what that app is going to start doing/posting. Really I've been wanting to find and try a custom rom that is not Google based just never get around to it.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I've been trying to strip out as much Google stuff as I can since I hate the idea of background apps that may be spying on me

That is basically the Google/Android business model. If you have Google Play services (needed for Play Store access) they are collecting data. Disabling an app or two is like trying to sink a submarine by shooting it with a squirt gun.

You have to move to something like CopperheadOS to do prevent anything but token data collection. But again you lose the app store with Copperhead and you have to side load apps (which might contain malware themselves) or install third party app stores which don't have the same choices.

I personally love the new Google Photos because I never ever wanted to "tag" my photos. It scanning them to make them all searchable without tags is almost on the level of magic, and for this magic (and Google Now magic) I willingly trade letting Google pwn me. I would never go back to the gallery alone because in Photos I can search dogs and it shows me a picture of my dogs. That is all I want in a photo app, machine learning kicks ass. The Google Plus thing is nothing, it is basically used as a universal Google Sign In at this point. I has never posted for me and I don't care if it does on a social network no one looks at.

The trick is to prevent companies OTHER than Google from spying on you in Android (AVOID FLASHLIGHT APPS)! If you use Android as is the only choice is to trust Google.

 

[SAWYER]

Yeah but it still wants me to turn on G+, and who knows what that app is going to start doing/posting. Really I've been wanting to find and try a custom rom that is not Google based just never get around to it.

You dont have to use G+ to use Photos. I dont have a G+ account and use Photos

 

[dainthomas]

I personally love the new Google Photos because I never ever wanted to "tag" my photos. It scanning them to make them all searchable without tags is almost on the level of magic, and for this magic (and Google Now magic) I willingly trade letting Google pwn me. I would never go back to the gallery alone because in Photos I can search dogs and it shows me a picture of my dogs. That is all I want in a photo app, machine learning kicks ass.

I also like how it'll stich together pictures I've taken at certain places into movies/panoramas. It's even applied filters to some nature shots I've done and asked if I liked them.

 

[sweenish]

I don't think you quite understand the situation. "Photos > Device folder" shows ALL images even the ones from "internal storage > system." Just how exactly is this "extra feature" beneficial to the end-users when they should only be seeing images from their Camera folder, Viber images, whatsapps, etc? There's no way to toggle/uncheck/disable system folders from showing up in Photos.

So you're complaining about what, again? That's not the default view, that's something you have to go and do every time. And as was said, it doesn't show stuff from system folders.

 

[Red Squirrel]

You dont have to use G+ to use Photos. I dont have a G+ account and use Photos

Yeah but it still wants me to enable it. That means it will be running in the background. I try to disable as much Google stuff as I possibly can. It might at least cut down on some of the spying. I'll have to just look for an alt app. I do need to read up more on custom roms and how they work and which ones are more privacy centric etc...

Been working a lot towards increasing my personal security and phone is one area that I really lack in and trying to improve. Stock Andoid is pretty much like having an NSA agent following you around all day. So I've been at very least trying to disable as much of the google stuff as I can. Obviously long term I need to figure something better like custom rom route.