Microsoft just announced a bunch of new updates for the Photos app on Windows. People who’ve joined the Windows Insider program can preview the four new features in the new Microsoft Photos app.

The updates are available on Microsoft Photos version 2024.11080.30001.0 and above. You can now sync iCloud media with your Microsoft Photos gallery on Windows 10. Previously, this Apple integration was only available on Windows 11. You’ll need to install iCloud for Windows to view your iCloud photos on Microsoft Photos.

This is also the first time the Windows App SDK-based Photos app is coming to Windows 10, which is already “leveraging the platform’s modern UI and other quality and performance optimizations” on Windows 11.

On both Windows 10 and Windows 11, this update makes it easier to navigate the gallery and find your media. You can select “Gallery” to see all your photos and videos in one place (pooled from your local storage, iCloud, or OneDrive). Or you can filter by just the cloud content. To view local content, you’ll have to use the “Add Folder” button.

You can also do image searches without leaving the Photos app now. Microsoft Photos connects with Bing Visual Search to show you similar images, products, and relevant visual content. You can access it by right-clicking on an image and selecting “Visual Search With Bing.” It’ll load the results into Microsoft Edge (or whatever your default browser is).

Photos can also run in the background for better performance. With some limited background processes, Photos will launch faster than ever. You can toggle the background processing in the app settings. For quick edits, you can access the in-built image editor by right-clicking on the image and selecting “Edit in Photos.” The editor gives you basic tools like crop, along with some AI features.

Source: Windows Insider Blog