Google Photos for Android has rolled out a trio of small updates today, led by a new shimmer setting.

The shimmer appears as an outline “around people or objects in your photos that you can take action on,” like creating a sticker.

It remains enabled by default, but you can now go to “Photos view” from the three-dot overflow menu or Settings > Preferences for a new on/off “Show shimmer” toggle.

Meanwhile, we’re seeing a Material 3 Expressive redesign of Settings. It makes full use of containers on the main page, Backup, and Preferences to better distinguish line items. Other pages like Notifications, Sharing, Apps & devices, and Privacy remain on the previous design for a piecemeal approach. 

Many Google apps that feature M3 Expressive on the main interface are stuck with older settings pages.

We’re seeing both changes rolled out with Google Photos 7.85 on Android.

Old vs. new

The final update today lets you quickly take a new picture when using Remix, Photo to video, or other AI templates. Instead of having to select a photo from your library, there’s a large camera FAB (floating action button) that launches the device camera. 

This is meant to be a “quick and temporary input, like a simple photo or a funny face” that saves you from having to exit Google Photos:

• Faster workflow: Seamlessly move from idea to creation without leaving the flow.
• No clutter: Easily capture a new, ideal input photo, even if you don’t have an existing one in your album.
• Instant creation: Immediately send your newly captured media to features like Photo to video.