Google is partnering with Samsung to launch the Google Photos app on its smart TVs, enabling users to view their favorite photos and memories on the big living room screen.
Importantly, this is the first time Google is bringing the full-featured Google Photos app to any platform. While there is a Google Photos app on Google TVs, it’s a more scaled-down, integrated experience that primarily powers screensavers, but lacks many of the advanced features found on the Android and web-based apps.
However, that will change when Samsung TV owners become the first to access the dedicated Google Photos app for big-screen platforms when it launches early next year.
The app is set to launch in March 2026, which should be around the same time as Samsung’s first 2026 TVs start hitting the market. It’s also set to land on some older Tizen OS TVs via a firmware update, but we imagine it’ll be the newest models that get it first.
Google Vice President Shimrit Ben-Yair said the point of the app is to serve as a home for people’s photos and videos, allowing them to organise and bring their memories to life on a much larger screen.
Samsung detailed a number of AI-powered features that users can expect to see when the app launches on its TVs, including Memories, which shows curated stories based on people, locations and meaningful moments. This particular feature will be exclusive to Samsung’s televisions for six months, the company added.
The app will also get a Create with AI tool that’s set to launch later in the year. It will introduce themed templates created by Google’s most advanced image generation model Nano Banana, allowing users to transform their photos and videos in various ways. They’ll also be able to bring still images to life as short videos, Samsung said.
Finally, there’s going to be a new personalised results feature that allows users to view various related images as a slideshow, based on different topics. For instance, a user might ask it to create a slideshow of their hiking trips or photos taken at the beach, and Google’s AI will instinctively put it together.
While Samsung is getting Google Photos first, Google promised that it will launch on additional TV platforms later this year.
