Samsung is developing a built-in Google Photos experience for its TVs from 2026 onward, which will put an end to years of workarounds that required users to cast them from phones or sideload unofficial apps. The companies say that the launch will start with a big-screen version of Memories, bringing a curated collection of photo and video highlights directly to your living room after signing in with a Google account.
What Samsung Is Promising for Google Photos on TVs
At launch, the Google Photos app on Samsung TVs will feature Memories albums — auto-created collections that highlight trips, events and people — available only on Samsung TVs for six months. That’s just viewing. Samsung plans to add Google’s AI-powered tools gradually, such as creative templates, generative edits and a Remix feature that can reshape existing shots for lean-back consumption on your big screen.
This isn’t just any old gallery port. Look for a TV-optimized interface designed to navigate via remote control, ambient play and fast access to recent highlights and favorited albums. For those who own The Frame, the integration could transform the TV’s Art Mode into a personal gallery driven by Google’s curation engine as opposed to static playlists.
Why It Matters for Big-Screen Photo Viewing at Home
The living room has proved a quite perfect surface on which to revive memories, but the plumbing is fragmented. Apple TV deeply integrates iCloud Photos; Android users have relied on casting or niche apps. A native Google Photos client on Samsung — the world’s top TV brand for much of the last decade — eliminates one of the more significant points of friction. According to Omdia’s shipping figures, Samsung is close to a 20% share globally, so that’s a huge installed base with better access to a library used by more than a billion individuals, per prior Google disclosures.
The move also adds to Samsung’s surprise embrace of Google’s ecosystem on the big screen recently. New for the 2024 models was Chromecast built-in, making it easier to cast from Android. A complete Photos app would go further, allowing passive, always-on storytelling without occupying a phone — imagine vacation recaps scrolling during dinner or a birthday slideshow that updates over time whenever new images are added.
The Six-Month Exclusivity Window for Samsung TVs
Samsung says Memories on TV will be available exclusively on its sets for six months. That gives Samsung a differentiator during its all-important annual sales cycles even as it offers Google some time to polish up a TV-first Photos experience ahead of wider implementation. It also raises the stakes for competitors like LG’s webOS and Google TV to come up with a similarly polished native gallery experience rather than depending on casting by itself.
Privacy and Performance Questions for Shared TVs
Because the app requires a Google sign-in, households will be wondering about multi-user account behavior — whose library shows up, how quickly profiles can switch and whether embarrassing items get locked. Google’s existing controls, like face grouping and Locked Folder, will be part of what ultimately appears on a shared screen, but neither company has outlined precise TV-specific safeguards for it yet.
Image fidelity is yet another thing to watch. Modern Samsung sets are equipped with 4K and HDR10+, as many smartphone photos feature wide color gamuts and HDR data. So, effective tone mapping, motion handling for videos and Live Photos, and smart upscaling on 8K sets will make all the difference between your app merely showing images and really doing them justice. (Gallery Collection’s models are cheaper and less feature-laden as a result of cost-saving internal chroma-calibration presets.) Samsung’s calibration tools through SmartThings could make it easy for galleries to appear consistent under daytime/nighttime viewing.
How it might change daily life in the living room
For families or friends split between Android and iOS, a Photos app that’s native to the TV minimizes some of the platform juggling that can keep pictures locked on phones. Shared albums can be surfaced in the living room without any extra steps, and AI-curated reels of images can appear as ambient backdrops when the TV is left idle. For creators, the in-the-works generative tools and Remix on TV suggest quick, couch-friendly ways to turn stills into stylized slideshows before jumping back to your phone again for a share.
What to Watch Before Launch on Samsung TVs
Among the remaining unknowns are which model years will be supported at launch, whether older installations of Tizen will gain access to the app via software update, and how thoroughly Google Photos can integrate with Samsung staples such as The Frame’s Art Mode and its screen savers. Pricing will not be a factor — Photos comes free with Google One storage, should you care for it — but the experience might differ depending on which account tiers factor into play, and whether 4K playback or a supposed limit on long-form video applies.
The effort, as Google’s Shimrit Ben-Yair puts it, is to bring people’s memories to life on bigger screens. Get the basics right — fast, thoughtful about privacy, tastefully curated — and 2026 could be the year that the biggest screen in your home becomes your favorite piece of hardware for rediscovering your photo library.
