Our favorite photo editor app, Google Photos, is widely used across all platforms, but the service has historically lacked one key feature: private messaging. The Mountain View giant has changed that, allowing users to share a photo or video as a message to other users without having to create an album.

The shared photo or video acts as a starting point for an ongoing conversation, and users can turn the message into a thread for future messages. New chats can be created by opening a photo in the library and tapping the share button.

Users can start group chats with as many people as they want and each member within the group can share photos and videos. You can like and comment on the photos and videos that others share and also save them to your own library.

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