Google sent out an “update to Album Archive” email today informing users that an old photo gallery UI related to Hangouts is going away next month.
Google says, “Some content that’s only available in Album Archive will be deleted starting July 19,” including:
- Rare cases like small thumbnail photos and album comments or likes
- Some Google Hangouts data from Album Archive
- Background images uploaded in the Gmail theme picker prior to 2018
A visit to get.google.com/albumarchive reveals an old gallery UI where the most notable album is called “Photos from Hangouts.” Google says these are your “Photos & videos shared on Hangouts.”
It’s organized by conversation, including SMS threads, with the newest entry dating back to 2016, in my case. Some galleries here have hundreds of photos that do also appear in Google Chat for one conversation I spot-checked.
“Album Archive will no longer be available” on July 19, 2023, and Google is recommending that users download a copy of the data before then via Takeout.
Following Google’s suggestion and getting a copy of these images won’t hurt, but — as best as I can tell — these images should be accessible in Google Chat and remain so even after next month. If anything, it’s a good trip down memory lane of the time period you heavily used Google for consumer messaging.
This is honestly a pretty confusing email, with the corresponding support document being hosted on a “Picasa and Picasa Web Albums” help page. It appears to be a vestige of that legacy product and Google+. That being said, this gallery view where you can see all the images you ever sent in a conversation is pretty nifty.
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