How to Make a Movie From Your Google Photos

Google Photos is a great service for organizing pictures, videos, animations, and collages containing your precious memories. It uses a separate storage space than your Google Drive, so it can also allow you to store more files without having to pay for extra capacity.

Although there’s nothing wrong with using Google Drive, Google Photos puts you in a great position to create albums and automatically sort uploaded photos by category. What’s even cooler is that you can make some decent-looking movies using both the web and mobile app version of the service!

The following tutorials will show you how to do just that.

How to Make a Movie From Your Google Photos?

First, you have to go to photos.google.com and sign in to your Google Account. From there, follow the next steps:

1. Click the ‘’Utilities’’ option in the left menu.
   
2. Select the ‘’Create New’’ option.
   
3. Click on the ‘’Movie’’ button.
   
4. Select a movie theme (optional step).
   
5. Click the ‘’Get Started’’ button.
   
6. Select the photos you want in your movie.
7. Wait for Google Photos to add all the files and to bring up the ‘’Movie Editor’’ screen.
8. To change the images’ order, click the film strip icon.
   
9. Drag images around as you see fit.
   
10. Hit the center icon to bring up the music selector.
11. Choose theme music or music from your collection.
    
12. Click on the effect icon in the upper-left corner to change the style of the movie.
13. Preview an effect from the list before accepting any changes.
14. Give the movie a name and start compiling it.
15. Download the mp4 file if you want to save it.

Note that Google Photos offers basic Movie Themes. You’ll find themes for pets, Mother’s Day, In Loving Memory, Valentine’s Day, kids themes, and so on.

You don’t have to pick a specific theme, but if you do, Google will search your albums for photos matching that style and automatically add them to the movie.

How to Make a Movie From Your Google Photos on iPhone or iPad?

You don’t have to use your computer to make a movie on your Google Photos account. All media is accessible via mobile devices too.

1. Tap the icon for the Google Photos application.
   
2. Sign in to your account if you’re not logged in already.
3. Tap the ‘’Library’’ option.
   
4. Tap the ‘’Utilities’’ button in the left menu.
   
5. Select the ‘’Create New’’ option.
   
6. Click on the ‘’Movie’’ button.
   
7. Select a movie theme (optional step).
8. Click the ‘’Get Started’’ button.
   
9. Select the photos you want in your movie.
10. Wait for Google Photos to add all the files and to bring up the ‘’Movie Editor’’ screen.
11. To change the images’ order, tap on the film strip icon.
    
12. Drag images around as you see fit.
    
13. Tap the center icon to bring up the music selector.
14. Choose theme music or music from your collection.
    
15. Click on the effect icon in the upper-left corner to change the style of the movie.
16. Preview an effect from the list before accepting any changes.
17. Give the movie a name and start compiling it.
18. Download the mp4 file if you want to save it.

Note that you can add a theme to your movie too. Select the theme you want before choosing photos and videos for your movie.

How to Make a Movie From Your Google Photos on Android Devices?

Note that this should work on most Android devices. However, certain smartphones without Google support may require some additional tinkering to access Google Photos.

1. Tap the icon for the Google Photos application.
   
2. Sign in to your account if you’re logged out.
3. Select the ‘’Library’’ option.
   
4. Tap the ‘’Utilities’’ Button.
   
5. Select the ‘’Create New’’ option.
6. Click on the ‘’Movie’’ button.
   
7. Select a movie theme (optional step).
   
8. Click the ‘’Get Started’’ button.
   
9. Select the photos you want in your movie.
   
10. Wait for Google Photos to add all the files and to bring up the ‘’Movie Editor’’ screen.
11. To change the images’ order, tap on the film strip icon.
    
12. Drag images around as you see fit.
    
13. Tap the center icon to bring up the music selector.
14. Choose theme music or music from your collection.
    
15. Click on the effect icon (the icon above the overview button) to change the style of the movie.
16. Preview an effect from the list before accepting any changes.
17. Give the movie a name and start compiling it.

Add one of the optional themes if you want a specific theme for your movie. Select the ‘’Export video’’ option if you want to download an mp4 version of the file, on your device.

Additional FAQs

How Do You Make Photo Albums in Google Photos?

Each photo and video album in Google Photos supports up to 20,000 files. It’s an easy way to sort your photos based on themes, locations, and other factors.

1. From your Google Photos account, access the Library.

2. Scroll or swipe down until you see the ‘’Create Album’’ button.

3. Add a title to your album.

4. Hit the ‘’Select Photos’’ (plus) button under the ‘’Add Photos’’ section.

5. Choose the files you want to add.

6. Hit the ‘’Add’’ button.

7. Use the ‘’Share’’ button if you want to share your album.

You can also create an album without going to your Library first. Select a photo or video and then press the ‘’Add’’ (plus icon) button at the top. When it prompts you to select an album, choose the ‘’New Album’’ option. Add your title and select ‘’Done.’’

How Do I Download a Movie From Google Photos?

You can download a movie the same way you download pictures or other media files.

1. Log in to your photos.google.com account.

2. Select any video you want.

3. Click on the ‘’More’’ (three-dotted icon) button.

4. Select the ‘’Download’’ option.

This will save the media file to your designated folder or to your folder of choice if you have the ‘ask before downloading’ option enabled in your browser.

The same process works for Android and iOS devices.

1. Install the Google Photos app if you don’t have it.

2. Log in to your photos.google.com account.

3. Tap on any video you want to select it.

4. Tap on the ‘’More’’ button.

5. Select the ‘’Download’’ option.

Note that if you already have that video on your device, the download option won’t appear. This is a quick way to troubleshoot a missing download option for your Google Photos media files.

Can You Upload Movies to Google Photos?

The process of adding movies to Google Photos is the same as adding photos from Google Drive.

1. Go to photos.google.com.

2. Log in to your account.

3. Select the ‘’Upload’’ option.

4. Choose Google Drive as the location you want to upload from.

5. Select the movie you want.

6. Hit the ‘’Upload’’ button.

Keep in mind that this only works for personal Google Accounts and not for school or work accounts. Instead, you have to download them on your device and then upload them to Google Photos.

How Many Photos Do You Need to Create a Google Movie?

You don’t need lots of photos to make a movie, but using too few may not give you the awesome result you want.

Google Photos do only allow a maximum of 50 media files per Google Movie. The 50-files limit includes both photos and videos, so choose wisely if you want to create something complex and professional.

How to Make a Google Animation or Collage in Google Photos?

You’ll also notice that you can create animations and collages, aside from movies. Animations are great if you have some sketches scanned or frame-by-frame pictures, you can piece them together. Collages are cool, too, if you want to display up to nine photos.

The animation creation process is very similar to that of a movie, but you can’t add any themes or music.

1. Go to photos.google.com and log in.

2. Select the ‘’Utilities’’ option.

3. Go to the ‘’Create New’’ feature.

4. Select the Animation or Collage options.

5. Choose your photos.

6. Hit the ‘’Create’’ button.

While collages only allow you to use between two and nine photos, you can make animations with up to 50 photos, as you could with movies. You can’t use video files for animations.

Final Words

You can tinker a lot with your Google Photos account and customize everything to your liking. Most people use it to automatically save their photos on the cloud instead of filling up storage space on their mobile devices.

If you want to take things one step further, feel free to use the Movie, Animation, and Collage creation tools and make your memories even more exciting.

Let us know how you feel about the Movie Editor in Google Photos. Do you find it too basic or just good enough for an entry-level video creation tool? Would you like Google to extend its limit of 50 photos/videos, or is it sufficient? Share with us your thoughts in the comments section below.