7 photo gallery apps you should use instead of Samsung Gallery

Last month, we learned that Samsung Gallery will no longer support OneDrive syncing and that support will end completely on September 30. While the feature is still technically usable, Samsung removed the Sync feature for newer app versions.

For those who relied heavily on the sync feature, now is a good time to see what else is available. A natural route is to consider a photo backup app that also has gallery features. For those who prefer a more traditional gallery app, there is also an alternative solution that will allow you to still have cloud backup capabilities.

With all that out of the way, here are the seven gallery or photo apps I recommend instead of Samsung Gallery.

Samsung Gallery was always designed with local media in mind, although in the past you could still back up items to the cloud using OneDrive. In contrast, Google Photos It focuses primarily on cloud storage and ensuring that all your photos can be viewed from virtually any device. That means its UI isn’t as tailored to the pure gallery experience.

That said, this doesn’t mean that Google Photos isn’t a capable Gallery app. Both tools offer a decent amount of editing tools, including AI features like the ability to delete objects. You’ll also find that both apps allow you to do basic things like adjust brightness, saturation, and more. What Samsung highlights is that it also adds features like watermarks, drawing tools, and stickers to the mix.

Google Photos is easy to recommend as a replacement if you’re looking for a more basic feature set and consider cloud syncing a priority. To get the most out of Photos, you’ll probably want a Google One subscription, as the free tier only gives you a maximum of 15GB of space on Google services.

Photos of Amazon It was already a decent gallery and backup app, but last month it received a major update with a much improved user interface. The previous photo grid has been replaced with a carousel of curated memories, and you can now search for images using natural language, such as asking to see photos from a specific holiday or family event.

If you’re a Prime member, you’ll appreciate that Amazon Photos includes unlimited full-resolution photo storage, along with 5GB of video storage with the option to purchase more. Those on the free tier get 5GB total, shared between photos and videos.

You’ll be missing the Galaxy AI editing tools and a few other Samsung-specific features, but whether that’s a worthwhile trade-off depends on your needs. You can always keep both apps and use Samsung Gallery for basic viewing and editing while Amazon Photos takes care of the storage.

chart is one of my favorite third-party options that doesn’t come from a major platform like Google or Amazon. On the one hand, it has a powerful yet easy-to-navigate user interface built around simple cards that are vaguely reminiscent of Windows Metro’s layout.

It also includes some useful features that you won’t find anywhere else on this list, including support for USB drives and integration with Google Photos, OneDrive, Nextcloud, and a variety of other cloud platforms. Whatever you already use for cloud storage, Piktures most likely supports it.

There’s even a Secret Space feature that isolates sensitive photos behind encryption, giving you added peace of mind about what could end up in the cloud.

The main downside is that Piktures has ads, which may bother those used to the cleaner Samsung Gallery experience. Ads can be removed for a one-time payment if that is a deal breaker.

If you want a photography app with built-in cloud sync, the above three are top Android options worth recommending. That said, we have to talk about OneDrive.

MicrosoftOneDrive Includes a basic photo backup system directly within the app. It’s limited on the advanced photography features side, but it means you can still use Samsung Gallery, with OneDrive handling backups instead of having everything under one roof.

For those who were never completely sold on Samsung Gallery, this is also a good opportunity to explore some of the other options. The rest of the apps here are feature-rich gallery apps with no built-in cloud storage, but any of them pair well with OneDrive or a similar service.

Focus Go It is a lightweight tool and ideal for minimalists who are not looking for robust editing or additional features. You get a clean, simple layout that organizes images by folder, making it easy to manage files and delete shots you don’t want to keep. There are still some power-user touches, such as fingerprint locking and the ability to render images in HDR.

Birds Gallery It’s a solid choice if you want something that’s a little deeper than a typical gallery app. It includes a statistics page that breaks down your photography habits, including file type counts, shot locations, and timestamps. Aves also makes searching easier by combining user-added tags with existing metadata, and you can set a specific folder as your home screen for faster access to directories you use frequently.

You may remember Simple Gallery, which was once one of the most popular open source gallery apps. After it upgraded to a premium model, Fossified gallery It emerged as a fork of the original, retaining many of its best features. The user interface appears simple at first glance, but underneath it offers a wide range of customization options suitable for virtually any level of photographer.

If you like the Google ecosystem but think Google Photos’ cloud-based approach isn’t for you, Google Gallery is another option. It’s been around in some form since 2019 and offers a minimal, stripped-down experience similar in spirit to Focus Go. Google Gallery may not be the most feature-rich app on this list, but it is compatible with Android 8 and up, giving it an advantage for users of older devices that newer apps may no longer support.