New feature on Google Photos: it's called "Memories", is the evolution of "Rediscover this day" and looks a lot like Instagram Stories. Even Google, therefore, gives in to the fashion launched initially by Snapchat and then spread everywhere thanks to Mark Zuckerberg's social networks.
The reference from which Google has drawn inspiration, in this case, are the Stories of Instagram: also Google Photos Memories will be characterized by a circular icon, within the photo gallery. At the moment, however, "Rediscover this day" is accessible from the Personal Assistant tab, within the Photos app, and via periodic notifications sent by the app itself. The new Memories are being released, and will arrive in Italy within a few days. In a second moment, the Memories will evolve: it will be possible to send them to our private contacts, through a chat system within the Google Photos app.
How Google Photos Memories work
Fishing within our personal photo archive, Google's artificial intelligence will select the photos that it considers most significant. As long as they're at least a year old. It will be possible to ask the app to exclude from the Memories the photos of a specific period, or those depicting a specific person (which will be recognized through facial recognition algorithms). So you can avoid seeing your ex-partners and ex-friends in your Memories.
New chat
The Memories within Google Photos are not just a nostalgia operation: on the contrary, they are the Trojan horse to spread a new instant messaging feature directly integrated into the Photos app. Each Memory, in fact, can be sent via private message to one or more contacts. These people, in turn, will see the photo and the message within the Photos app installed on their smartphone. It's conceivable, therefore, that they will also receive a notification.
Will it work?
The integration of an internal chat in Google Photos has made more than one person turn up their nose. You don't need to be a tech expert to remember Google's previous attempts to launch its own instant messaging system, all of which failed: Allo, Duo, Hangouts, Google Chat are all failed experiments in this area.