Google Photos update arrives with support for Apple's Live Photos

Starting with version 1.8, the app allows users to back up and view Live Photos. If you don’t remember, those are the special images that can be captured by only the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Along with the photo, it records a second and a half of action before and after. As a nice touch, the app will go back in time and upload all of your old Live Photos.

The app is now also completely optimized for the larger and high-resolution screen of the iPad Pro. All applicable iPad users with iOS 9 can even take advantage of the Split View multitasking gesture that allows two apps to be used simultaneously.

Finally, along with a number of performance improvements, the app’s navigation has been improved to make it easier and quicker to use.

Google Photos is designed for the iPhone/iPod touch and all iPad models. It can be downloaded now on the App Store for free.

The service officially arrived almost a year ago at Google’s IO conference. Shortly after its debut, our own Jeff Byrnes took an in-depth look at the service and came away impressed.

Since then, Google has continued to improve the app and service with a number of nice updates bringing shared albums, space saving features, and more.

If you’re looking for an alternative to Apple’s own iCloud Photo Library, Google Photos is hard to beat. Just to note, all photos uploaded to the service will be scanned by Google’s machine-learning algorithm. While that might bother some, it’s a price many don’t mind for the free service with unlimited storage.