Google Photos is getting a new feature that could save your phone’s battery, but there’s a catch

Google Photos is finally adding a feature that could help save your phone’s battery life. For years, the app has only focused on controlling data usage, but now it’s looking at power consumption too. This is good news because background syncing can drain your battery quickly when you don’t expect it.

Until now, users could only control their Google Photos backups by managing data use. You could choose to upload over Wi-Fi or mobile data, or set limits on cellular data. But there were no controls for battery usage. If the app started backing up a large 4K video and your phone died early, the only option was to turn off backups completely. That’s not a good solution when you want to save your photos but also need your battery to last.

According to Android Authority, this problem is about to change. People looking through Google Photos version 7.59 found evidence of a new toggle. After some work, the new setting appeared in the app’s backup menu. It’s called “Optimize backup for battery life.”

This feature gives users real control over battery drain

This new setting gives users actual control over power use, which has been missing for a long time. When you turn this on, Google Photos won’t constantly check for new pictures. Instead of syncing every photo and video right after you take it, the app will slow down its background activity. This means the app won’t wake up your phone’s processor as often, which saves battery.

You can now save battery without using complicated system settings or turning off automatic backups completely. That’s a big improvement for everyday use. If you’re worried about storage space, you can also reclaim 15GB of free Gmail storage with a simple workaround.

But there’s a catch you need to know about if you use this setting. Because the app is slowing down background syncing to save battery, your photos won’t appear instantly on the web or your other devices. There will be a delay in syncing.

Photos and videos you take during the day might not show up on the web or sync to your tablet right away. The backup might only start when you open the Google Photos app. So if you take 50 photos during a day trip and don’t open the app, those photos might not sync until you launch the app later that evening.

This delay seems acceptable for most people. Most users don’t need their photos uploaded instantly. They just need them uploaded eventually and safely. This feature provides a middle ground between battery life and automatic backups. Google has been working on other personalization features too, including realistic avatars for Android users that come with some limitations. If you often run low on battery by the end of the day, this new toggle will be a useful setting when it becomes available.