Google Photos now has manual backup

In a new version of Google Photos that has started rolling out today, you can now manually back up specific photos. To get in on this photo-saving action, just choose the photos you want, then tap the three-dots menus and choose “Back up now.” 

Now also seems like a good time to remind you that you can actually search Photos using emoji now. The feature first appeared on April 1st, and a lot of people wrote it off as an April Fools prank on the part of the search giant. It would appear that the joke is indeed on us, because this is a real feature that’s sticking around… and it’s surprisingly effective. If you haven’t tried it out yet, boot up photos and run a search with your favorite emoji. See what pops up.

For the record, if you’re not using Google Photos by this point then you are outside of your mind. For many the app serves as an end-all-beat-all solution to that horrible “I dropped my phone and lost all my vacation pictures” problem. Photos ensures that you never lose a memory again, because all of your pics and videos are privately uploaded to your own secure little bubble of the cloud. This also frees up device storage space, because you can always delete the versions saved on your phone without worrying about them going away on Photos.