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| Samsung and Google are working together to bring Google Photos to Samsung TVs as early as March 2026 |
If you’ve ever wished you could easily fling your camera roll from your phone onto your big-screen TV, your patience is about to pay off—and from a somewhat unexpected source. While Android TV and Google TV users have long wondered about a full Google Photos app, Samsung has just stolen the spotlight. The electronics giant announced it is partnering with Google to bring the full Google Photos experience directly to its Tizen-powered smart TVs, starting in 2026.
This move promises to transform your living room screen into a dynamic, immersive gallery of your life’s best moments.
A Seamless Bridge From Your Pocket to Your Living Room
According to an official statement, Samsung is working to deeply integrate Google Photos into its TV ecosystem. The goal is simple yet powerful: to let users effortlessly relive their favorite memories on a large, immersive canvas. No more casting, no more fiddling with cables—just a seamless flow of your personal photos and videos from your phone to your TV.
The photos will be intelligently curated, organized by the people you love, the places you’ve been, and the moments that matter. Imagine your TV not just as a passive display, but as an active storyteller.
As detailed in the official announcement, the integration will be deeply woven into the Samsung TV experience. Photos will appear through features like Daily+ and Daily Board, blending your personal memories into the fabric of your TV’s interface. Setup is designed to be dead simple: just sign in with your Google Account, and your photo library will instantly be ready to view on the big screen.
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| Google Photos is coming to smart TVs in 2026, starting with Samsung TVs |
A Three-Phase Rollout Packed with AI Smarts
Samsung isn’t just dropping a basic photo viewer. The company outlined a sophisticated three-phase rollout for 2026, each phase adding a new layer of intelligence and creativity:
- Memories (Launching March 2026): This first phase will be exclusive to Samsung TVs for six months before expanding to other brands. “Memories” will generate curated visual stories for you, automatically compiled based on recognized people, locations, and significant moments from your library.
- Create with AI (Arriving Later in 2026): Here’s where it gets creative. This phase introduces themed templates powered by Nano Banana and a “Remix” feature. Users will be able to change the artistic style of any image with a click or even transform a still photo into a short, shareable video.
- Personalized Results (Also Arriving Late 2026): This feature supercharges search. Want to see every photo from your beach vacations or hiking trips? Simply search for “ocean” or “hiking,” and the TV will present a personalized slideshow of all related images, pulling from your library’s contextual data.
Will Your Samsung TV Get It?
The new Google Photos features will debut first on Samsung’s 2026 TV models. For owners of recent older models, there is hope—Samsung states the features will arrive “following the OS update schedule.” As expected, you’ll need a Google Account and photos backed up to Google Photos to use the integration.
This partnership marks a significant step in the evolution of the smart TV. It’s no longer just about streaming shows; it’s about making the screen a central, personalized hub for your own content. By bridging the gap between our most powerful photo platform and our largest screen, Samsung and Google are betting that our fondest memories deserve the best seat in the house.