I replaced Google Photos with this free offline gallery app; I no longer feed my pics to Google
No account or cloud access required
For years, Google Photos served as my preferred photo gallery app, drawing me in with its unlimited storage for photo backups. Even after the deal ended, I remained loyal to Google Photos because I had amassed thousands of photos in the cloud. I searched for a viable alternative to Google Photos' gallery function, but I could easily download another gallery app to browse through my photos if needed.
Recently, the sluggish performance of Google Photos led me to switch to a fully offline gallery app. Slow folder displays and constant slowness in loading folders prompted me to find a solution. I discovered Memoria, a fully offline open-source gallery app available only on GitHub. After some time, I made Memoria my default gallery app on Android.
Memoria's Achilles heel is its reliance on the cloud. Even when accessing local folders, the app processes information online, leading to longer load times. However, by using Memoria, I gained more control over my photos and experienced faster search times.
Memoria operates independently from the internet and uses local AI to scan locally saved files. It requires only Photos and Videos permission on Android, allowing users to select folders that Memoria will index. After granting permission, I had to let the app scan my entire storage, which took a considerable amount of time but warmed up my phone as a result. To prevent battery throttling, it is recommended to run the initial indexing while plugged in to a charger.
Searching using natural language is easy, with terms like "blue sneakers" or "coffee on a table" yielding results within seconds. Memoria's local index and detachment from cloud services contribute to its fast search capabilities. Additionally, Memoria can search using photos and automatically parse text in screenshots and documents, bringing related photos up in search results.
An experimental feature, Smart Albums, creates albums based on keywords and gathers photos connected to that keyword. However, the feature is inconsistent, capturing most sneaker photos for "sneakers" but returning blank results for other keywords like "cars" or "books."
To ensure that Memoria indexes new folders, they need to be added under Manage Folders in settings. The app's search filters are limited, allowing only date range selection and specific folder checks. Despite this limitation, Memoria has a promising future with more features planned, such as native in-app actions and manual album additions.
Written by urgent.news from Android Police's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
