Create a movie from an album in Google Photos (step-by-step)

Google Photos is so much more than a simple cloud-based library for your photos and videos. There are many interesting tools for editing and creating new things, enriching the captured memories. For example, you can make movies, animations, and collages in a few simple steps. With movies, you can stack all photos from an album representing an event in a single slideshow-like video. Create a movie from an album in Google Photos by following the instructions below.

Table of contents:

1. How to create a movie from an album in Google Photos on your phone
2. Make a movie or animation on Google Photos for the Web

How to make a movie from your Google Photos album

You can create a movie (slideshow) or animation from your Google Photos album both on your handheld device or on your PC. The procedure is rather simple and the results are often quite satisfying. Of course, if you need more, you can check for third-party tools that do that. The Google Photos approach to creating movies is pretty bare-bone but still does the job if you want to do it fast.

The limitation is that you can use only 50 photos or videos per movie or animation and only up to 9 photos per collage. Yes, you can merge up to 50 videos into a movie. Learn how to make a movie from your Google Photos on your Android, iPhone, or PC, below.

1. How to create a movie from an album in Google Photos on your phone

There are two ways to create a movie/animation/collage from photos you’ve stored in Google Photos. The first one is to navigate to Utilities and select the preferred option. The second one is to select photos/videos you want to use and just create a movie.

We prefer the latter option because, from Utilities, you’ll be presented with all photos. It’s easier to select an album, select photos, and create a Movie.

Here’s how to create a movie from a Google Photos album on your phone:

1. Open Google Photos.
2. Open Library.
3. Select the album containing photos you want to make a movie from.
4. Select a single photo or video and tap & hold to enable the Select mode. From there, you can handpick 49 more photos or videos. You can select photos fast if you tap & hold while swiping downwards.
5. Once you’ve got 50 photos or videos (or less, you can make Movies with 2 photos or videos and up to 50), tap on the “+” sign and choose Movie from the contextual menu.
6. After some time, you should see the Edit box along with Preview where you can select the time length for each photo with a slider (great if you want to distinguish favorite photos from the rest), the soundtrack, and the orientation.
7. The only thing remaining is to Save your creation.

Now, finding the newly-created movie is a bit of a hassle. Google Photos will place the Movie on the date when the photos that it contains are uploaded. To speed things up, you can select the Search tab and type Movies. This will bring all Movies you’ve created.

You can download the movie, share it, or add it to an album. Or edit it if you’re not quite satisfied with the results. The same applies to Animations.

2. Make a movie or animation on Google Photos for the Web

In a similar manner, you can make a movie or animation on Google Photos for Web. In comparison to some other features, there’s only a single drawback. Namely, you can’t insert your own soundtrack and have to make do with the tracks available in Google Photos.

With that said, here’s how to make a movie or animation in Google Photos for Web, on your PC:

1. Navigate to Google Photos for Web.
2. Open Albums from the left pane.
3. Select photos and videos you want to add to a movie by clicking the circle at the top right corner. You can select many items much faster with Shift + click. Left-click on a single photo/video and then, while holding Shift, click to highlight another photo. All photos in between the two will be selected, as well.
4. Once you select the photos or videos, click on the “+” sign and select Movie.
5. Just like in the Google Photos app, you can change orientation from portrait to landscape, add theme music, and tweak the presentation length for each photo/video. The only option missing is the capability to add your own music or tones as the soundtrack. You can do this later on your phone.
6. After all the tweaks, Save the movie.

Find it by looking for Movies in the search bar. Share it, edit it, add it to an album, or delete it — your choice. That should conclude it. Thank you for reading and don’t forget to share your thoughts, questions, or suggestions with us in the comments section below.