Google Photos will now show you exactly where an image came from

The feature is currently only available on the Photos web app, unfortunately.

What you need to know

• Google is adding new ‘uploaded from’ and ‘shared by’ categories to images’ metadata in Photos.
• As the names suggest, these bits of information can help you more quickly identify where an image comes from.
• The change is only live in the Photos web app, however, with no word on when/if the iOS and Android apps will also get the feature.

If you’ve got an extensive photo library — and who doesn’t these days? — it might be hard to keep track of exactly where everything’s coming from. To help with that dilemma, Google has updated the ‘Info’ panel in Photos to show more two bits of information about each file.

These are ‘uploaded from’ and ‘shared by.’ As their names suggest, both pieces of metadata are designed to help you narrow down an image’s provenance with greater specificity.

The ‘uploaded from’ field shows whether the image was uploaded via an Android or iOS device, the web, or Google Drive. ‘Shared by,’ meanwhile, does exactly what it sounds like, and tells you which album the shared image comes from. It also tells you if the image has been saved to your own library.

The feature should be available to everyone using the Google Photos web app. The iOS and Android native apps, however, do not currently have these added bits of detail, and since it is a relatively minor change, there’s no word from Google on when/if it plans to bring feature parity to the mobile apps.

Get More Pixel 4

Google Pixel 4 & 4 XL

Pixel 4 From $799 at Amazon
Pixel 4 XL From $899 at Amazon

• Google Pixel 4 review
• Google Pixel 4 XL review
• Best Pixel 4 cases
• Best Pixel 4 screen protectors
• Best Pixel 4 XL cases
• Best Pixel 4 XL screen protectors