What is the Gallery app?
The Gallery app is the default photo and video gallery included on most Android devices. It provides a centralized place to view, organize, edit, and manage media content like photos and videos on your device. The Gallery app replaced the old “Photos” app on many phones from Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC, and other manufacturers (1).
Some key features and functions of the Gallery app include:
- Viewing photos and videos stored on your device
- Organizing media into albums and folders
- Editing photos with filters, cropping, rotations, and more
- Sharing media to social networks, messaging apps, and more
- Setting photos as wallpaper or contact photos
- Syncing and backing up media to cloud services
The Gallery app aims to provide a fast, intuitive, and customizable media management experience for Android users. It gives quick access to recently added media while also automatically sorting photos and videos by date, location, and people using machine learning. Overall, the Gallery app serves as the central hub for managing visual media on Android devices.
Understanding the interface
The Gallery app interface is designed to make viewing and organizing your photos intuitive and user-friendly. The main screen displays a grid of thumbnail previews of all your photos and videos. At the bottom of the screen are tabs that allow you to switch between different views:
The Photos tab shows all your photos and videos in chronological order. You can scroll vertically through your media or tap on a thumbnail to view a photo or video full screen.
The Albums tab lets you view your photos organized into albums that you have created. Tapping an album shows only the photos in that album.
The Favorites tab displays photos you have marked as favorites for quick access. You can favorite photos by tapping the heart icon on a photo thumbnail.
The People tab uses facial recognition to group photos by the people identified in them. Tapping a person shows all photos they appear in.
The Places tab organizes photos on a map based on location data. You can zoom in on the map and tap photos pinned to a location.
So the key sections of the Gallery interface allow you to view your photos chronologically, by album, favorites, people, or location.
Viewing photos and videos
The Gallery app makes it easy to access and view all your media files in one place. When you open the app, you’ll see thumbnails of all your photos and videos organized by date. Tapping on a thumbnail opens the photo or video in fullscreen view. From there, you can zoom in and out by pinch-zooming with two fingers. Swiping left or right will let you scroll through your media chronologically.
The Gallery app also provides options to edit your photos right within the app. Tap the edit icon in the top right corner while viewing a photo to bring up options like crop, rotate, add filters, adjust contrast and brightness, draw, add text, and more. After making edits, tap save to overwrite the original or save a copy.
Sharing photos is also simple with the built-in share button in the Gallery app. Tap the share icon while viewing a photo or video to bring up options to share via messaging apps, email, social media, and more. You can share individual files or select multiple thumbnails to share entire albums.
Overall, the intuitive interface and gestural navigation of the Gallery app makes viewing and interacting with your media library a seamless experience. With robust editing tools and easy sharing options, you have everything you need to manage your photo and video collection right at your fingertips.
Organizing media content
The Gallery app makes it easy to organize your photos and videos into albums for quick access. You can create custom albums to categorize media based on time, people, places, or topics. According to Slidebox, albums allow you to “Sort photos into albums with a single tap.”
To create a new album in the Gallery app, tap the plus icon in the top right and select “Album.” Give the album a name and choose which photos/videos to add. You can also long press on a photo or video and choose “Add to album” to add it to an existing album.
In addition to albums, you can add descriptions and tags to photos and videos for more ways to organize and search. Tap the info icon on a media item, then tap “Add tag” or “Description” to add relevant details. Tags make it easy to find related content. According to Smart Photo Gallery, this allows you to “tag memories with keywords for easy search and organization.”
Finding the Trash Folder
The Trash folder in the Gallery app serves as a temporary holding place for photos and videos that you delete. When you delete media content from the Gallery, it gets moved to the Trash folder instead of being permanently erased. This gives you a chance to recover deleted items if you change your mind.
To find the Trash folder in the Gallery app, first open the Gallery app on your Android device. At the bottom of the app, tap on the “Library” tab. This will open up a menu showing different album categories. Scroll down and look for the “Trash” album [1]. Tap on it to view all of your recently deleted photos and videos.
The Trash folder allows you to easily restore deleted media if needed. However, items in the Trash folder won’t stay there forever. After a certain number of days, media in the Trash will be permanently erased to free up storage space. So if you want to recover a deleted photo or video, be sure to check the Trash folder sooner rather than later.
Moving photos to Trash
To move photos to the Trash in the Gallery app on Android, simply long press on the photo you want to delete to select it. This will highlight the photo with a checkbox. You can select multiple photos to move to the Trash by tapping additional photos.
Once you have selected the photos you want to delete, tap the Trash icon in the upper right corner. This icon looks like a trash can. Tapping it will move the selected photos to the Trash folder.
According to Google’s support article, “Manage your photos with Gallery,” you can long press photos to select them and then use the Trash icon to move them to the Trash folder in the Gallery app [1].
Recovering deleted photos
When you delete photos in the Gallery app, they are moved to the Trash folder and remain there for 30 days before being permanently deleted. During this 30 day period, you have the option to restore deleted photos.
To recover recently deleted photos within the 30 day window:
- Open the Gallery app and tap on the Library tab at the bottom
- Tap on Trash to view your deleted photos
- Tap and hold on a photo you want to restore
- Tap “Restore” to move the photo back to the main Gallery
This restore option allows you to recover photos that were accidentally or unintentionally deleted. However, keep in mind that photos will only remain in the Trash folder for 30 days before being permanently deleted. So be sure to restore any important photos within that timeframe.
Permanently deleting photos
If you want to permanently delete photos from your Android device’s gallery so they are gone forever, you need to empty the Trash folder.
When you delete photos in the Gallery app, they are moved to the Trash folder. They are not permanently deleted yet. The Trash folder keeps them for 30 days before being permanently deleted [1].
To permanently delete photos from the Gallery app:
- Open the Gallery app on your Android device.
- Tap on the hamburger menu icon in the top left.
- Select Trash.
- Tap on the photo or photos you want to permanently delete.
- Tap on the delete icon in the bottom right.
- Confirm you want to permanently delete the photo(s).
Once you empty the Trash folder, the photos are permanently deleted and gone forever from your device [2]. There is no way to recover them unless you have a backup.
Alternative deletion options
In addition to moving images to the Trash folder for later recovery or permanent deletion, there are a couple other ways to delete photos within the Gallery app.
Deleting within albums
You can delete photos directly from their albums without moving them to Trash first. Open the album where the image is located, tap and hold the photo you want to delete, then tap the trash icon. This will immediately and permanently delete the photo without sending it to the Trash folder first.
Using device file manager
You can also delete photos using your Android device’s file manager app. Open the file manager app and navigate to the DCIM folder where photos are stored. Tap and hold the photo you want to delete, then tap the delete option. This will permanently delete the photo. Be cautious when deleting photos this way, as they will not go to the Trash folder for recovery.[1]
Using the file manager lets you bulk delete multiple photos at once. However, it doesn’t differentiate between photos, so check carefully before permanently deleting anything.
Backing up photos
Backing up your photos is extremely important to avoid losing your memories and precious moments forever. There are a few options to backup the photos from your Android device’s gallery:
One easy option is to backup your photos to Google Photos. Google Photos provides free unlimited storage for photos up to 16MP and videos up to 1080p resolution. You can install the Google Photos app, sign into your Google account, and it will automatically backup all your device’s photos. Google Photos also makes your photos searchable and allows you to access them from any device.
Another option is to manually transfer photos from your Android device to a computer or external hard drive using a USB cable or SD card. This gives you full control over which photos are backed up and allows you to store them locally rather than in the cloud. Just remember to periodically create new backups as you take more photos.
Cloud storage services like Dropbox, OneDrive and iCloud also allow you to backup your photo galleries. Most offer a few GB of free storage and then paid subscription plans for expanded storage. This gives you backup both locally on your device and in the cloud.
The key with backups is having multiple copies in different locations, so no single failure or accident causes you to lose all your photos. Set up automatic Google Photos syncing and do manual backups to your computer every so often for complete protection.
