Samsung has now made it official: the Gallery app is transitioning its cloud backup over to Google storage. We first reported back in September that Gallery would be shifting its sync service to Google Photos, coming right on the heels of the OneDrive integration being discontinued on September 30. Now, Samsung itself is spelling out exactly how the change works.
The new Gallery sync powered by Google storage is beginning to roll out on select Galaxy smartphones and tablets running One UI 9, with a broader phased expansion planned over time. That said, Samsung cautions that the feature might not reach every market. Rather than offering its own cloud allotment, the sync taps directly into your Google account's storage pool. That means the standard 15GB of free space—shared across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos—is what you have to work with, and users needing more room can turn to Google One subscription plans. Because Samsung isn't throwing in any bonus storage of its own, your actual available capacity will hinge on how much of that Google quota is already consumed by other services.
One important caveat at launch: once you switch the feature on, Gallery will only display photos and videos that were synced through the app itself. Your pre-existing Google Photos library won't automatically show up inside Samsung Gallery, although Samsung's phrasing hints that deeper integration could arrive in a future update. Meanwhile, anything you previously backed up to OneDrive isn't going anywhere—those files stay available through Microsoft's own app and website.
Samsung is also introducing a handy "Free up space" option, which deletes synced original files from local storage while keeping lightweight thumbnails visible in Gallery so you can still browse your collection. Additionally, when setting up a brand-new Galaxy device, enabling sync with the same Samsung and Google accounts lets you preview your entire synced library and pull down full-resolution originals whenever you need them.
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