Import photos and videos from your Google Photos account and show them as responsive grid, masonry, carousel, and story galleries. Pick your media with Google's official Photos Picker, save it to your own Media Library, then design the gallery in the block editor — block or shortcode.
Gallery for Google Photos | Documentation | Pricing | Support | Demo
Gallery for Google Photos publishes your Google Photos library without coding. Choose a layout, set responsive columns, add captions and hover effects, and open photos in a full-screen lightbox with video playback. Because the photos you pick are copied into your own Media Library, your galleries keep working even after your Google session expires.
Use it for photography portfolios, travel blogs, event recaps, real-estate listings, or client galleries. It works with any WordPress theme.
Key Features – Free Version
Import & Connection
- Photo & Video Import: Import from Google Photos with the official Photos Picker.
- Saved to Media Library: Media is stored in your own Media Library, so galleries keep working.
- Self-Hosted OAuth: Your Google credentials stay on your server, never sent to us.
- Authorization Sidebar: Field validation, loading state, one-click connect/disconnect.
- Media Type Filter: Show All Media, Photos only, or Videos only.
Layouts
- Grid Layout: A fully responsive photo grid.
- Masonry Layout: Pinterest-style layout; every image keeps its own ratio.
- Carousel / Slider: Autoplay, loop, arrows, and pagination dots.
- Memories / Stories Layout: Google Photos–style round story bubbles.
- Responsive Columns: Separate column counts for desktop, tablet, and mobile.
- Column & Row Gap: Adjustable spacing in both directions.
- Aspect Ratio Control: 16:9, 4:3, 1:1, 3:4, or 9:16.
- Image Border: Width, style, color, and radius.
Captions & Hover
- Captions: Pull captions from the image title or date.
- Caption Position: Below the image, or overlaid on hover.
- Caption Styling: Typography and color controls.
- Hover Effects: Zoom, overlay, and caption slide-in.
- Meta Overlay: Show each photo's date and dimensions on hover.
Search & Filtering
- Live Search Bar: Always-visible or expandable; filters by title or date as visitors type.
- Voice Search: Search by speaking; hidden automatically where unsupported.
- Autocomplete Suggestions: Matching titles and dates drop down while typing.
- Highlighted Matches: Matched text is highlighted in results and suggestions.
- Live Result Count: A "3 of 125 photos" indicator while filtering.
- Year Filter Chips: One-click chips to filter by year.
- Individual Toggles: Every search feature can be turned on or off on its own.
Photo Filters & Cropping
- Visual Filter Presets: Grayscale, Sepia, Vintage, Warm, and Cool, with optional reveal-original on hover.
- Focal Point Crop: One crop focus for all images with a live preview, plus per-photo fine-tuning so faces are never cut off.
- Ken Burns Motion: Continuous zoom / pan at an adjustable speed; great for hero backgrounds and kiosks.
Lightbox
- Fancybox Lightbox: Full-screen viewer with photo and video playback.
- Lightbox Navigation: Caption, keyboard navigation, slideshow autoplay, thumbnails bar.
- Download Button: Optional toolbar button to save the original image.
- Social Share Buttons: Facebook, X, Pinterest, and Copy-link in the toolbar.
- Deep Link to a Photo: The open photo appears in the URL (?photo=N), so a shared link reopens it.
- Video Options: Controls, autoplay, muted, loop, and fit-to-window.
Pagination
- Three Modes: Show All, Load More, or numbered pagination.
- Items Per Page: Set how many photos load at a time.
- Custom Button Text: Set your own "Load More" label.
- Button Styling: Color, typography, border, and padding.
Performance & SEO
- Lazy Loading: Blur / low-res placeholders make the page feel instant.
- Responsive Images: srcset so browsers fetch the right size: faster loads, less bandwidth.
- Schema.org Markup: ImageObject structured data for Google Images and rich results.
- Per-Image Alt Text: Editable alt text for accessibility and SEO.
Usability
- Drag-to-Reorder: Rearrange selected photos in the editor.
- Frontend Sort Dropdown: Visitors reorder by Newest, Oldest, or Random.
- Photo Count Badge: Show a "125 photos" badge above the gallery.
- Preview Limit & View All: Show the first N photos with a button to reveal the rest.
- Import / Export: Copy a gallery's styling and layout as JSON to reuse elsewhere.
- Shortcode Support: Embed anywhere outside Gutenberg with [google_photos id=..].
- Guided Empty States: Polished empty and not-connected states with clear next actions.
- Modern React Dashboard: Demos and help built into wp-admin.
- Theme Compatible: Works with any theme; supports wide / full alignment.
Gallery for Google Photos Pro – Unlock Premium Features
Gallery for Google Photos Pro adds advanced layouts, album automation, client-delivery tools, and gallery protection, so you can run a professional photo workflow from WordPress.
What's New in the Pro Version?
Advanced Layouts & Display
- Justified / Mosaic Layout: Images fill every row edge-to-edge at varying widths.
- Timeline Layout: Group photos by day, month, or year with sticky date headers.
- Advanced Carousel Options: Slide effect, speed, slides-per-group, centered slides, grab cursor, pause-on-hover, free-mode.
- Frontend Media Filter Bar: Visitors filter by Photos, Videos, or All, with custom labels.
- Design Presets: One-click looks (Clean Grid, Dark Portfolio, Polaroid, Magazine, and more) plus save your own.
Premium Lightbox & Hover
- Premium Lightbox Skins: Multiple visual themes for the viewer.
- Video Autoplay in Lightbox: Videos start playing when opened.
- EXIF Display: Camera, lens, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO from the image data.
- Per-Image Custom Link: Link any image to an external URL in a new tab.
- Advanced Hover Styling: Grayscale effect, hover icon, and gradient overlay.
Advanced Search
- Fuzzy / Typo-Tolerant Search: "beech" still finds "beach".
- "/" Keyboard Shortcut: Focus the search box from anywhere on the page.
- Recent Searches: Remembered per gallery in a dropdown.
- "Did You Mean…" Suggestion: Offered when a search returns nothing.
- Sticky Search Bar: Follows scroll on long galleries.
Client Delivery for Photographers
- Client Picks (Proofing): Visitors heart favorites and submit them; the selection is emailed to you and saved under Google Photos → Client Picks, with optional per-photo comments.
- Download as ZIP: Visitors download the whole gallery as one ZIP of the originals.
- Gallery Expiry: Auto-hide a gallery after a chosen date, with a custom message.
Analytics & Maintenance
- Gallery Analytics: Views and lightbox opens, with totals, a most-viewed table, and a bar chart.
- Media Cleanup Manager: Per-gallery storage, one-click orphaned-photo cleanup, and optional delete-photos-with-gallery.
Image Styling
- Image Box Shadow: Add depth with customizable shadows.
- Advanced Border Radius: Per-corner control for unique shapes.
- Gradient Overlays: Apply gradient effects over gallery images.
Album Sync & Automation
- Album Auto-Sync: Paste a shared album URL; new photos appear automatically via WP-Cron.
- Sync Interval Choice: Check every 15 minutes, hourly, or daily.
- Live Event / Wedding Mode: Open pages refresh themselves and reveal newly synced photos with no reload, behind a pulsing "Live · N new" badge. Guests drop photos into the shared album and the wall updates itself.
- Multi-Album per Gallery: Pull from several shared albums, with an optional album-tab switcher.
- Shared Album Embed: Display any public shared album without full OAuth setup.
- Bulk Album Import: Import a whole shared album in one sync.
Gallery Protection
- Password-Protected Gallery: Restrict access with a password.
- Right-Click Protection: Disable the context menu to discourage downloading.
- Automatic Watermark: Server-side logo watermark on import, with position, opacity, and size.
Performance
- Auto WebP Conversion: Convert imported images to WebP for faster loads and smaller files.
Upgrade to Pro to unlock all premium features.
How to Use Gallery for Google Photos – Quick Start Guide
Getting started is easy!
Step-by-Step Setup
- Go to Plugins → Add New.
- Search for Gallery for Google Photos.
- Click Install Now, then Activate.
- Add your own Google API credentials (Client ID, Client Secret, Refresh Token) in the block's Authorization sidebar and connect. See the documentation for the one-time Google Cloud setup.
- Add the Gallery for Google Photos block, click Select Photos, pick your media, choose a layout, configure settings, and publish.
- Or insert the generated shortcode anywhere to show your gallery.
Enjoy fast, responsive Google Photos galleries on your site!
Live Demo | Try the Pro Version
- For installation help click on Installation Tab
User Feedback
– Did you like this plugin? Dislike it? Have a feature request? Please share your feedback with us
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Source Code
You can find the source code, report bugs, and contribute to the development of this plugin on our GitHub repository: Gallery for Google Photos on GitHub
External Services
This plugin connects to the following external services. Understanding what is sent, and when, helps clarify how your data is handled.
Google Photos (Google OAuth 2.0 + Google Photos Picker API)
What it is and why it is used: This plugin is a Google Photos gallery. To let you pick photos and videos from your own Google Photos account and display them on your site, it connects to Google's APIs on your server. This connection only happens after you enter your own Google API credentials (Client ID, Client Secret, Refresh Token) in the plugin settings and use the "Select Photos" flow; it is required for the plugin to function.
Which endpoints are contacted and what data is sent:
- https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token — your Client ID, Client Secret and Refresh Token are sent to exchange them for a short-lived access token.
- https://photospicker.googleapis.com/v1 — the access token is sent (as a Bearer token) to create a picker session, check its status, and list the media items you selected. The selected photos/videos are then downloaded to your own WordPress Media Library.
When it happens: only in wp-admin, triggered by an authenticated administrator connecting an account or clicking "Select Photos". No data is sent from your visitors' browsers, and the OAuth credentials/tokens never reach the frontend.
Your credentials and tokens are stored only on your own server (in your WordPress database) and are sent only to Google. This plugin does not transmit them to bPlugins or any other third party.
Google's terms and privacy policy:
- Terms of Service: https://policies.google.com/terms
- Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
- Google APIs Terms of Service: https://developers.google.com/terms
Schema.org vocabulary (https://schema.org)
What it is and why it is used: On the frontend the plugin outputs Schema.org "ImageObject" structured data (JSON-LD) for each gallery image so search engines such as Google can better understand and index your images (Google Images / rich results, improving SEO).
What data is sent: None. The address "https://schema.org" appears only as the standard @context identifier inside the JSON-LD markup — it is a vocabulary name, not a network request. The plugin does not connect to, load anything from, or send any data to schema.org. All image data stays on your own server.
Terms & privacy: https://schema.org/docs/terms.html
Third-Party Libraries
This plugin bundles the following third-party JavaScript/PHP libraries.
Swiper
- Source: https://swiperjs.com/
- GitHub: https://github.com/nolimits4web/swiper
- License: MIT – https://github.com/nolimits4web/swiper/blob/master/LICENSE
- Purpose: Provides the "Carousel" gallery layout — a touch-enabled slider with autoplay, loop, navigation arrows and pagination dots.
Plyr
- Source: https://plyr.io/
- GitHub: https://github.com/sampotts/plyr
- License: MIT – https://github.com/sampotts/plyr/blob/master/LICENSE.md
- Purpose: A simple, accessible HTML5 media player used to play gallery videos inside the lightbox.
Fancybox (@fancyapps/ui)
- Source: https://fancyapps.com/fancybox/
- GitHub: https://github.com/fancyapps/ui
- License: Fancyapps UI License – https://fancyapps.com/pricing/ (note: this is a proprietary license, not MIT/GPL).
- Purpose: The lightbox that opens photos and videos in a full-screen viewer.
Immer
- Source: https://immerjs.github.io/immer/
- GitHub: https://github.com/immerjs/immer
- License: MIT – https://github.com/immerjs/immer/blob/main/LICENSE
- Purpose: Enables safe, immutable updates of block settings inside the Gutenberg editor.
Axios
- Source: https://axios-http.com/
- GitHub: https://github.com/axios/axios
- License: MIT – https://github.com/axios/axios/blob/v1.x/LICENSE
- Purpose: Promise-based HTTP client used for the plugin's admin/editor AJAX requests.
React Router (react-router-dom)
- Source: https://reactrouter.com/
- GitHub: https://github.com/remix-run/react-router
- License: MIT – https://github.com/remix-run/react-router/blob/main/LICENSE.md
- Purpose: Client-side routing for the plugin's admin "Demo & Help" dashboard.
Font Awesome
- Source: https://fontawesome.com/
- GitHub: https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-Awesome
- License: SIL OFL 1.1 (Fonts), MIT (CSS), CC BY 4.0 (Icons) – https://fontawesome.com/license/free
- Purpose: Provides scalable vector icons used in the block and editor interface.
bpl-tools
- Source / GitHub: https://github.com/bPlugins/bpl-tools
- License: GPL-2.0-or-later – https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
- Purpose: Shared utility library providing admin dashboard components and common Gutenberg editor controls.
- External Services: The library may connect to bPlugins, WordPress.org, and Freemius services for product data and checkout functionality. See full details: https://github.com/bPlugins/bpl-tools#external-requests–why-they-are-made
Freemius Lite SDK
- Source: https://bplugins.com/
- GitHub: https://github.com/bPlugins/freemius-lite-sdk
- License: GPL-2.0-or-later – https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
- Purpose: Provides an opt-in consent form for usage tracking and analytics to help improve the plugin. No data is sent before explicit user consent.
- External Services: Communicates with
api.bplugins.com(activation events) andwp.freemius.com(opt-in processing) only after user opt-in. See bPlugins Privacy Policy and Freemius Privacy Policy.
