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Because Google Photos does not have an Android TV app, I periodically do a full Google Takeout to pull all my images so that I may rsync newer ones over to my N

by buro9 9y ago

Because Google Photos does not have an Android TV app, I periodically do a full Google Takeout to pull all my images so that I may rsync newer ones over to my NAS so that they appear in Plex and my wife can then view them on the Google TV. Can you stop reinventing things that already exist, and perhaps fix things that are real customer pain points. Like not being able to view Photos on an Android TV, like not being able to use Google Drive or even this new Backup and Sync on Linux... or the big one, the fact that GSuite accounts are crippled and the majority of new products cannot be used by those with GSuite accounts or can only be used in a severely crippled way.

CardenB 9y ago
These "real customer pain points" seem pretty specific and isolated to me.
- buro9 9y ago
  https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/play/86WVa8b_3i4 https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/play/86WVa8b_... 1,022 comments about a single aspect of the G Suite account restriction, relating to a single Google product (Play Music)... in this 1 thread alone. Doesn't seem that specific and isolated to me.
  - zwayhowder 9y ago
    3 million paying g-suite "businesses" (Assume 3 customers per business as that's the minimum and you have 9 million accounts) and 1000 comments? Or 0.03% of customers or 0.01% of accounts. Seems pretty specific and isolated to me. Don't for a moment think I don't agree with that though. I am a paying g-suite user for my family and would love to have access to family sharing. But I do recognise that I am in a minority.
Sargos 9y ago
It's not going to be easy to just put Google Photos on Android TV. Android TV has no concept of accounts or privacy so the only way it could really work right now is to either open up the entire user's photos to anyone currently using the TV or invent some sort of hard to use scheme such as only displaying photos "tagged" a certain way as public/tv which most people probably won't do. Or they could ask for a PIN each time which is annoying. Solving that issue is going to take a re-work of the Android TV user experience. A lot of apps have this problem such as Drive, Dropbox, Docs, etc. There's no current way to have an app with personal data be usable on a public device like a TV. >or the big one, the fact that GSuite accounts are crippled and the majority of new products cannot be used by those with GSuite accounts or can only be used in a severely crippled way. You have to remember that GSuite, as an app for businesses and education, has a lot more restraints and big hairy legal and ethical issues for every single feature than the consumer versions of the apps. Each thing Google makes needs to be looked at from a very different angle and lots of decisions have to be made for it to be made available for business use. The use cases are very different. Money is handled differently. Lots of access controls need to be created for admins in each app available in GSuite. It's not a trivial amount of work.
- euyyn 9y ago
  Can you cast photos from the Photos app in your phone?
  - Sargos 9y ago
    Yes. Which makes sense because you are actively sharing them and can end the display whenever you want. No privacy issues.
    - euyyn 9y ago
      Sounds like the appropriate solution for OP's use case of the wife looking at them on the TV.
rishsharma 9y ago
If Google Photos is the primary ingestion engine for you, you could do this (a suggestion): 1. Go to Drive online. Go to Settings 2. Enable "Create a Google Photos folder" 3. Download the Backup and Sync client, and sync Google Photos to a place on your computer. 4. Periodically have rsync copy new files to your NAS via a scheduler.

by buro9 9y ago

CardenB 9y ago

These "real customer pain points" seem pretty specific and isolated to me.

buro9 9y ago
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/play/86WVa8b_3i4 https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/play/86WVa8b_... 1,022 comments about a single aspect of the G Suite account restriction, relating to a single Google product (Play Music)... in this 1 thread alone. Doesn't seem that specific and isolated to me.
- zwayhowder 9y ago
  3 million paying g-suite "businesses" (Assume 3 customers per business as that's the minimum and you have 9 million accounts) and 1000 comments? Or 0.03% of customers or 0.01% of accounts. Seems pretty specific and isolated to me. Don't for a moment think I don't agree with that though. I am a paying g-suite user for my family and would love to have access to family sharing. But I do recognise that I am in a minority.

Sargos 9y ago

It's not going to be easy to just put Google Photos on Android TV. Android TV has no concept of accounts or privacy so the only way it could really work right now is to either open up the entire user's photos to anyone currently using the TV or invent some sort of hard to use scheme such as only displaying photos "tagged" a certain way as public/tv which most people probably won't do. Or they could ask for a PIN each time which is annoying. Solving that issue is going to take a re-work of the Android TV user experience. A lot of apps have this problem such as Drive, Dropbox, Docs, etc. There's no current way to have an app with personal data be usable on a public device like a TV. >or the big one, the fact that GSuite accounts are crippled and the majority of new products cannot be used by those with GSuite accounts or can only be used in a severely crippled way. You have to remember that GSuite, as an app for businesses and education, has a lot more restraints and big hairy legal and ethical issues for every single feature than the consumer versions of the apps. Each thing Google makes needs to be looked at from a very different angle and lots of decisions have to be made for it to be made available for business use. The use cases are very different. Money is handled differently. Lots of access controls need to be created for admins in each app available in GSuite. It's not a trivial amount of work.

euyyn 9y ago
Can you cast photos from the Photos app in your phone?
- Sargos 9y ago
  Yes. Which makes sense because you are actively sharing them and can end the display whenever you want. No privacy issues.
  - euyyn 9y ago
    Sounds like the appropriate solution for OP's use case of the wife looking at them on the TV.

rishsharma 9y ago

If Google Photos is the primary ingestion engine for you, you could do this (a suggestion): 1. Go to Drive online. Go to Settings 2. Enable "Create a Google Photos folder" 3. Download the Backup and Sync client, and sync Google Photos to a place on your computer. 4. Periodically have rsync copy new files to your NAS via a scheduler.