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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Microsoft has pushed out a new Windows 11 app called OneDrive Photos.
- The app lets you access, view, and edit your OneDrive photos.
- The app groups photos of the same people via facial recognition.
Earlier this week, I noticed a new app called OneDrive Photos pop up in the Start menu on my Windows 11 PC. Being the curious type, I opened the app to snoop around and see what it could do. As its name indicates, it lets you view and even edit any photos you’ve stored in OneDrive, either on your PC or in the cloud.
But why did Microsoft push it out so quietly, and are there any downsides to using it?
First, let’s address at least one question.
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“OneDrive Photos is already generally available today, and we’re now previewing its new gallery as ‘Photos (Preview)’ for Windows Insiders in the Experimental channel,” Microsoft said in a statement shared with PC World. “This update arrived through a OneDrive update rather than a separate install.”
OK, that explains how it rolled out, but it raises another question. Microsoft says that the app is a preview for Windows Insiders in the Experimental channel. But I received it on my regular production Windows 11 PC, not on an insider build. And from what I’ve read, many other people did as well.
Everything you can do with the OneDrive Photos app
With that mystery afoot, let’s check out the app to see just what it does. If you’re running Windows 11, just click the Start button, and you should see OneDrive Photos listed under recent or recommended apps or in the Apps list. Fire up the app, and you’ll find several categories listed on the left — Moments, Gallery, People, Albums, Favorites, and This PC.
The default view of Gallery displays all the photos, screenshots, and other images you’re storing in OneDrive, starting from the latest to the earliest. Hover over the icons on an individual photo, and you can get information on it, delete it, share it, or add it as a favorite.
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Click an image to open it full screen, where you’ll find additional commands. Most notably, you can edit a photo by cropping it, adjusting its brightness and other attributes, and applying various filters. You can also open a photo with a different app, such as Paint or Microsoft Photos.
The Moments category shows you photos from current dates, but going back several years. Click a photo to view them one after the other.
Privacy concerns with facial recognition
The People category is one that may stir up some controversy. Here, Microsoft displays the faces of people who appear in your OneDrive photos library. The app invites you to select a specific person and enter their name. Whether you name someone or not, clicking a specific face reveals other photos of that person based on facial recognition. Could that be a privacy concern?
Here’s what Microsoft says.
“Face grouping is visible only to the account owner and is never shared; users also have the ability to opt out at any time,” Microsoft noted in its statement. “Microsoft does not use these facial scans to train its AI models, and all data is deleted after 30 days. We will gather feedback from Insiders and continue to iterate on the experience before rolling it out more broadly.”
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To opt out of the face grouping, select Settings on the left and click More settings. At your OneDrive web page, select Photos. The page explains how the photo tagging and People sections work. Turn off their switches to disable them.
The category for Albums shows you any albums you’ve created in OneDrive. Favorites displays any photos you’ve tagged as a favorite. The This PC category takes you to your local OneDrive photos folder.
After working with OneDrive Photos, I didn’t discover any downsides to the app itself. It’s well designed and easy enough to use. I found it a more friendly way to view my photos than going through the OneDrive folders in File Explorer. Even with potential privacy issues, the People view is a helpful way to track down photos of the same person.
A good idea poorly managed
But I do have a few concerns about the overall inclusion of this app.
First, why did the app land on my regular Windows 11 PC and those of many other users when it was supposedly aimed at Windows Insiders?
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Second, Microsoft provided no advanced warning of the app and no option to refuse it. That would be understandable if it were aimed solely at Windows Insiders, which may have been the original intention.
Third, there’s no apparent way to uninstall it. The only way to block or delete OneDrive Photos is by completely removing OneDrive, according to Windows Latest. For those of us who rely on OneDrive to back up and sync our files, that’s not a feasible option.
As is often the case, Microsoft cooked up a good idea here but seems to have mismanaged the rollout. Still, as someone who stores lots of photos in OneDrive, I like the new app and will continue to use it.
