A lot of us like to use Google’s Apps instead of Apple’s native apps on the iPhone for many reasons. Maybe you like Google’s services more than Apple’s, and using Google’s apps on the iPhone has always been a seamless experience. But there was one limitation that could be very frustrating when you are using Google’s services and not Apple’s default app for your needs, and that is not being able to use Siri to perform specific actions in those apps.
So, if you were using Google Photos instead of the Photos app on the iPhone, you could not ask Siri to open certain photos for you in Google Photos like you could with the Photos app. But thanks to the arrival of Siri shortcuts in iOS 12, developers can now seamlessly integrate their apps with Siri.
Google has also updated its Google Photos app to take advantage of the Siri Shortcuts functionality. You can create Siri shortcuts to perform certain tasks on Google Photos and next time you need to do them, just ask Siri and it will do them for you.
To get started, open the Google Photos app from your iPhone home screen.
In the Google Photos app, tap the ‘Menu’ button (3 stacked lines) at the top-left corner of the screen.
In the menu, tap Settings to access Google Photos settings.
Under settings, tap Siri shortcuts to add shortcuts for the tasks you want Siri to perform.
Tap the ‘+’ icon next to the suggested shortcuts.
A Siri Shortcut creation screen for Google Photos will open. Here the two sections ‘When I say’ and ‘Do’ define what Siri will communicate and request from the Google Photos app when you say a command.
After configuring the Siri shortcut for Google Photos, tap the ‘Add to Siri’ button at the bottom to save/activate the shortcut.
Now, when you say the exact words to Siri that you typed as the command, Siri will complete the task using Google Photos. You can add as many shortcuts as you like.
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